


The Thing About Regret

by iremi678



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: M/M, Midoriya Izuku Needs A Hug, Parental Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2020-10-19 15:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 38,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20659499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iremi678/pseuds/iremi678
Summary: Tsuna and Izuku know all about regret. Deeply and intimately they come to regret many things throughout their lives. Becoming a mafia boss, not having a quirk. Sometimes, regret holds us back. But other times, regret is what pushes us to heights we could only dream off. When pasts and futures collide, where will their regret take them?





	1. Chapter 1

Izuku

I can barely remember a time before all this started. When I was just the same as everyone else and our biggest worry was who had the coolest toy and who got to play the hero this time. When we spent the days dreaming up what quirk we would end up getting. It was a competition really, to see who could think up the most unique quirk possible, and how you would become the best hero with it, just like All Might. Because that’s what everyone wanted, right? To become a hero?

So, when my classmates quirks started to appear, I couldn’t help but impatiently wait for it to be my turn. For their adoration to be turned to me. Kaachan can make explosions on his palms, another girl can pretty lights appear. Everyone had such an amazing quirk, except me. I suddenly became odd one out. The one that was _different_, and they never let me forget that.

It started out innocent enough, a stray hurtful comment here or there, teasing. It only escalated from there to outright bullying. And at the center of it all, was Kacchan. My _best friend._ My _only_ friend. The minute the doctor handed down my sentence of ‘Quirkless’ he wanted nothing to do with me. No, he wanted to lord it over me to fuel his ego. ‘_Deku’ _he called me. ‘_Useless Deku, no future, no worth, he can’t do _anything.’

The words stung, teachers, classmates, my mother at one point, there was no escape from it. (A_nd that hurts the most really. My own mother believes I’d never amount to anything.)_ Just past the hurt though is an odd nostalgia I can’t understand and the feeling that this is just the starting line. That all of this will _mean_ something one day. So, I desperately held on to that to combat the hurt and loneliness. There was no point in fighting against it, however, I could only endure.

For years I endured, I distracted myself with taking apart quirks. Hero’s, villain’s, stranger’s, it didn’t matter. How did their quirk work? Strengths? Weaknesses? Possible uses? To satiate my growing obsession, I began to seek out villain fights.

Obviously, with my luck it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. Focused solely on writing down my observations, I ignored the ringing warning in my head. I never noticed that the fight had gotten so close until I’m yanked off my feet with the villain’s knife edged forearm pressed firmly against my throat. The villain shifts and the sharp edge breaks the skin, blood drips down staining my shirt.

The world freezes in that moment. The screams go silent, the light fades, the hero reaching out to save me with a desperate expression on his face. It’s all so surreal.

‘_I’m going to die’_

The frozen world unpauses, and the reality of the situation crashes into me. _I’m going to die. No. NO! I can’t, I won’t! I won’t die with the world thinking I can’t do anything! That I’m useless! I refuse!_

In my blind desperation I _pull_ at that fleeting warmth at my core, with every ounce of will I can muster. Because if I fail here, I always be that useless Deku who can’t do anything. So, I drag that warmth to the surface. Because this time, _this time,_ I’m going to _save myself_.

It’s then that I hear the screaming, Is that me? The villain? The hero? The audience? Maybe it all of us. Not that it matters. The warmth floods my senses, overwhelming that frantic panic with an unnatural calm. The villain drops me in shock, reveling an opening the hero capitalizes on, quickly restraining him.

Dumbly I stare at my hands in astonishment. Beautiful orange flames dance across the skin. A missing part of me has come home.

“-id. Kid!” A worried police officer finally catches my attention. “You ok?”

I try to answer him, but as soon as I open my mouth the warmth starts to slip away, and with it goes my consciousness.

A voice I don’t recognize, but somehow feels so _familiar_ sounds from the back of my mind before I completely pass out.

‘_Do it with your dying will, Dame-Tsuna.’_

A small smile appears on my face as I distantly feel myself fall backwards.

‘_Ah. How could I have forgotten.’_

* * *

Waking up is altogether a disorienting experience. My head throbbing with familiar buzz of my intuition. Now that I know what it is, I can’t help but scold myself for ignoring it. I groan when I open my eyes, the light momentarily blinding me before my eyes can adjust.

_A hospital room?_ I wonder as everything begins to come back to me. Being held hostage, the flames, the _memories_. I burry my face in my hands, praying to whatever deity exists that Reborn doesn’t somehow find out about the mess I’ve gotten myself into. I have absolute faith that if he does, he’d find a way to torture me. _Even if_ I’ve been reincarnated or in a different world or _whatever the hell happened to me. _Because this is Reborn I’m talking about. Logic doesn’t apply to him.

Shoving that thought into the back of my mind before I can work myself into a panic, I refocus on my current situation. Now that I think back there have been signs. Odd emotions and nostalgia I couldn’t place, from memories so deeply ingrained that they leaked through. My intuition was always there, not that I knew what it was, and it was considerably weaker due to my flames being inactive.

But what happens now? Now that my flames, memories and hyper intuition are fully returned, what now? I’m not the same person anymore, I can’t be. Sure, I’m still 12-year-old Midoriya Izuku, a boy obsessed with heroes and quirks, who has been put down his entire life. But I’m also 24-year-old Sawada Tsunayoshi, unwilling Vongola Decimo, the most powerful man in the underworld. And while our childhoods were similar, Tsuna’s memories are so much heavier. Life and death constantly hanging in the balance.

“Izuku? Are you awake?” Ka-san asks from the door, interrupting my thoughts. She must have stepped out for a moment; I ignore the whispered _lie_ of my intuition.

“Yea, sorry for worrying you Ka-san” I give her a smile.

“Oh, I wasn’t worried.” She waves off my apology. “I heard you finally got your quirk. It’s about time.”

“I did! I can make fire!” I tell her proudly.

“That’s great Izuku, now you won’t be useless!”

I barely manage to prevent myself from flinching at that. No matter how many times someone calls me useless, it still feels like someone is stabbing a knife into my heart. Our relationship has grown rather strained over the years. After being told over and over that her son would never amount to anything, she eventually started to believe it as well. She started to distance herself from me, until she basically only provided food and shelter. Essentially, we are strangers that live in the same house, occasionally crossing paths.

Now that I have my flames, who knows how that will change. Even if she starts to make up for it now, it won’t change the years of negligence. It’d honestly feel like betrayal, after so many years of her indifference when I didn’t have a quirk to suddenly change how she treats me now that I do. It just feels so _wrong._ A knock on the open door saves me from having to respond.

“It seems you’ve finally woken up. I’m Doctor Nakamura Kaito, do you mind if I ask you a few questions to make sure you’re alright Midoriya-kun?” Doctor Nakamura is a tall man with golden hair and gentle silver eyes.

“Not at all.”

“Can you tell me your name and how old you are?”

“Midoriya Izuku, I’m 12.”

“Do you know why you are in the hospital?”

“I got held hostage in a villain attack and activated my quirk for the first time.”

“Good, are you in any pain or feel uncomfortable?”

“No.”

“Well it seems you’ve come out of the situation alright. I would recommend you see a quirk counselor due to the nature of how your quirk manifested, especially since you are a late bloomer. You’ll also need to register it. But otherwise I see no issue discharging you. First though, there is a detective that would like to ask you a few questions about the incident is that alright?”

“That’s ok.”

“I’ll send him in then, it was nice meeting you.” He gives a soft smile as he leaves.

A few moments later a well-groomed man in a trench coat comes in.

“Well it’s good to see that you didn’t come out of the incident hurt. I’m Detective Tsukauchi, I’m here to take your statement on the attack.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Just answer a few questions. Can you state your name for the record?”

“Midoriya Izuku”

“What were you doing at the attack?”

“I sought it out, I like to analyze quirks, especially hero’s and villain’s. I got distracted writing in my notebook and didn’t notice the fight getting to close until I was taken hostage.”

“I see. And that’s when your quirk manifested.” My intuition goes off at this question for some reason, warning me to answer carefully.

“That was the first time my flames activated” I cautiously agree. There’s no warning after that, so I guess I answered that correctly.

“Do you remember anything after that?” And again, a warning sounds.

“Not really?” I say unsurely being purposely vague. “I mean I remember being pretty out of it and passing out.” He doesn’t seem to notice anything off about those statements, they are completely true. They just aren’t the whole truth.

“That’s understandable, it was a very stressful situation.” He jots down a few notes, “I don’t have any further questions, but please, stay away from fights in the future.”

I just laugh sheepishly and avert my gaze. He sighs.

“I’ll let you get out of here. I’m sure you’re eager to get home.”

“Thank you!” I call after him.

“Well now that that’s settled, let’s go home.” She smiles, but it doesn’t feel right. _It feels like a lie._

“Yea. Home.” I agree trying to squash the feeling of loneliness that comes over me at the word.

It doesn’t work, it just leaves me feeling empty.


	2. Chapter 2

Aizawa

It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve come across a teenager out late at night alone. It happens, they never do seem to realize the danger they put themselves in. Or they deliberately seek it out. Others are at the ends of their rope and are looking for some kind of release. Drugs, sex, suicide. It’s depressing, knowing such young kids are throwing their lives away. But its reality.

I can’t tell which category this kid falls into. He’s on the smaller size, with green curls poking out from under his hood. At first, I was worried he was planning on jumping, seeing as I found him on the roof of a building. But in the ten minutes I’ve spent watching him, he hasn’t moved an inch. At this point, I might as well confront them.

Leaping over the gap to the roof he’s on doesn’t elicit a reaction from him at all.

“What are you doing up here kid?”

“The world is noisy tonight.” He calmly responds, not surprised at all by the question, or by my sudden appearance.

“You knew I was watching?”

“Yeah.” He finally faces me and in the dim light I can make out the dark bags under his green eyes.

“Since when?”

“The beginning.” My eye twitches, for a kid to notice me I must be slipping. “It’s part of my quirk.”

“Your quirk, that still doesn’t explain why you’re up here in the middle of the night.” I press.

“I can’t turn it off, not without consequences. So, I’m stuck listening to the world.” He sighs, more tired than a kid his age has any reason to be. “And believe me. The world is a very loud and noisy place. Up here it doesn’t feel so overwhelming.”

“Is it some sort of enhanced hearing?”

“No, I’d probably prefer that though. It seems my quirk mutated from my parents. My dad could breath fire, and mom has minor telekinesis. It resulted in flames with a mental component I call hyper intuition.”

“Hyper intuition? What does it do?”

“It alerts me to danger and lies I haven’t fully worked it out yet. It started with me as the center of focus, only alerting me to things that were a direct danger to me.”

“But not anymore.”

“No.” He shakes his head, clearly irritated. “Now I’m constantly bombarded by information, useful or not.”

“That’s how you knew I was watching you.” That is an extremely useful quirk to have, if he can manage to learn how to control it.

He nods. “And how I knew running was pointless. You weren’t a threat, but I don’t have the skills to get away from you.”

“So, you didn’t bother trying.”

“Why waste energy like that?” He flippantly replies. “Ah.” He suddenly straightens. “You should probably go. Someone’s being mugged a few streets over.” 

“Where exactly?”

“Hmm” He closes his eyes in focus, before pointing. “That general direction, it’s not far, but I can’t pinpoint their location. I’d definitely be able to lead you there.”

“No. That’s enough. I’m a pro-hero I’ll be able to take care of it.” No way am I dragging some kid into a fight.

“Suit yourself.” He shrugs unbothered.

“Careful on your way home problem child.” Leaping off the building, I can hear his laughter. It definitely suits him better than the somber expression he was wearing earlier.

It’s a few days later when I meet him again on the same roof. This time sprawled out watching the sky with an unreadable expression.

“Again, problem child?”

“Mmn. I’m thinking.”

“And you couldn’t do that while it’s still light out?”

“Well I couldn’t sleep anyways.” He slowly pushes himself up so he’s sitting, wincing slightly at certain points, hand drifting to his ribs. “Might as well do something with my time.”

“You could do that at home.”

He shakes his head but doesn’t bother explaining himself, done with that line of questioning.

“That guy you pointed me to the last time, it seems the police have wanted him for a while. Apparently, one of his previous victims died from his injuries. I would have gotten there too late if it weren’t for you.”

“That’s great!” I can just barely see the flush of embarrassment before he turns away. “No one else got hurt?”

“A little beaten up, but nothing serious. It would have been a lot worse.”

“Good” he lets out a sigh of relief. “Good.”

“You were worried?”

“No. I mean—I don’t know, I guess I was?” He stumbles over his words. “Sorry that doesn’t make sense. “I knew it turned out ok. But just knowing isn’t really the same as confirmation, I guess? I don’t know if that makes sense.”

“It does. Is there anything going on right now?”

“There always is. Just depends what you’re looking for.” He points of into the distance at an office building. “There’s a fight going on over there, it’s wrapping up now, and no one is really injured.” His finger shifts to an apartment complex. “A couple are having an argument over there, it’s not violent or anything, but the police are likely to be called.” His eyes narrow in focus for a moment before his face shifts into a scowl. He stands completely to turn around to point at a bar, green eyes now a blazing amber. “Over there a man is cornering a woman. He’s going to assault her.” His face darkens. “Then kill her.”

“I’ll take that one.”

“I’ll lead,” I open my mouth to argue, but he cuts me down. “You won’t find her in time otherwise. I’ll stay out of the way.”

“Fine. You’ll stay on the roof.” I reluctantly agree. There’s no time to argue with him. “Get on and hold on tight.” I crouch down, he wastes no time wrapping his arms around my neck and pull himself up, securing his legs around my waist I take of in the direction of the bar he pointed at, it’s not a far run. “Where now kid?”

He shifts arms and points to a small abandoned building with part of the roof caved in. “In there, the right corner closest to us.”

Quietly I drop down onto the intact part of the roof, from here I can hear faint screaming. He slips off my back.

“Stay here and be quiet I’ll come get you when it’s safe.”

He nods and I’m slipping silently into the building. The assailant is exactly where the kid said he’d be. The woman’s put up a good fight, but he’s overpowering her. My capture weapon unfurls and lashes out at the man just as he leaps at the woman. Momentum stopped; he falls to the ground struggling to untangle himself while screaming obscenities.

“Ma’am, get behind me.” She blinks in shock, before relief fills her tear-filled face as she scrambles to get out of the way, eventually taking refuge behind an overturned couch.

Keeping tension on the capture weapon, I pull out my phone and make a call to the police letting them know I’ll need an ambulance and a police car. The man’s screaming is beginning to get annoying, so I shift the scarf, so it covers his mouth as well. Much better.

Satisfied, the guy is not going anywhere, I head over to the couch where the woman fled and crouch down, while making sure I still have line of sight on the man. She’s hugging her knees to her chest shaking with fear. It doesn’t look like she’s hurt too badly thankfully. But I wouldn’t have been able to get here in time if I had to search for her.

“Miss?” She flinches, “I have the police and an ambulance on the way. Everything will be alright now.”

A choked sob courses through her, and not a second later she full out hysterically sobbing.

“Are you badly hurt anywhere?”

“M-m-y ar-m” She manages to get out between breaths.

“Can I see it?” She slowly holds it out, gently I prod at the large bruise. “It might be broken; I can’t tell right now. Anywhere else?”

She shakes her head retrieving her arm from my grasp.

“You did a good job hanging on. I can hear the sirens now; it shouldn’t be much longer.”

True to my word, the first police car pulls up minutes later followed shortly by the ambulance. With the man in the back of the police car, the woman taken care of by the paramedics and my statement given, I can finally go collect the kid from the roof.

“Thinking again?” He’s sprawled out on his back again.

“Yeah. Everything work out ok?”

“The woman’s pretty shaken up but is more bruised than anything. The man’s definitely going to jail.”

“That’s a relief.” He winces again when he stands up. “We should get going too.”

“I’ll bring you home.” It looks like he’s about to argue before he thinks better of it. He climbs back onto my back without argument.

“Head back towards the other building, the apartments not far from there.” He’s quiet as I leap across the gaps between buildings, only speaking up to give directions.

“What’s your name problem child?”

“Midoriya Izuku.”

“Eraserhead. Aizawa Shouta.” Dropping him of near his apartment, he pauses looking back with an unreadable expression.

“Thank you.” And runs off. I can’t figure out what exactly he’s thanking me for. But I watch until he is safely inside. He went through the window though. I sigh in exasperation. Why doesn’t it surprise me the problem child snuck out?

I see him again a few times over the next two weeks each time, always injured somewhere. Busted lip, black eye, tender ribs. He makes no mention of it and resists my probing by pointing me towards someone in trouble. Sometimes he’d be there when I come back after taking care of it, other times he isn’t. At some point I began to actively look out for the kid. Because something was clearly wrong. It’s not just the plethora of injuries he keeps showing up with. either He’s overly cautious with me, careful not to let me get too close unexpectedly. The only times he’s let me touch him is when he’s leading me to a victim I wouldn’t find in time on my own. Flinching at loud noises, explosions and gunshots especially.

When it came out that he analyzes quirks as a hobby, I realized just how smart he is. Fighting criminals has never been easier when you have all their weakness lined out in front of you. I could have done without the long rant about my quirk though. It was a bit unsettling to be taken apart like that. Insightful. But unsettling.

Without really noticing I had gotten a high-quality informant. His information was always accurate, and best of all he never has to risk himself or others to get it. No one would be able to tell where I was getting my information. Because, no one would even suspect a 12-year-old kid.

But just because no one could figure out who he was, doesn’t mean that no one noticed he existed.

“So.” Detective Tsukauchi starts after I give my statement at the station. “Am I ever going to meet this new informant of yours?”

“What makes you think I have one.”

“Well for starters, your capture rate has gone up in the last few weeks.”

“I got lucky.”

“And I suppose the fact they are mostly high-profile targets is luck too.”

“Mostly”

“Hey if you don’t want to give him up, I won’t force you.” He throws his hands up in surrender.

“He’s not in trouble with the law if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Oh?”

“I think he needs help himself.” I tiredly rub my eyes “He’s always got new injuries every time I see him. And there’s just something…off about him. He likely has issues at home.”

I want to blame his hyperawareness on his intuition, but it doesn’t feel right. Or at least not totally. What he’s doing feels like it is learned behavior.

“Sure I can’t help?”

“You can run a name for me.” I conceded.

“Alright,” He pulls up the database. “What is it.”

“Midoriya Izuku.”

“Ah that kid,” he says typing the name.

“You know him?” 

“About 2 months ago he was held hostage in a villain attack and ended up manifesting his quirk.”

“That’s extremely late for him to just get his quirk.”

“Right? Anyways here’s the data we have on him. 12 years of age. Mother is Midoriya Inko, Father Midoriya Hisashi. They are divorced. Mother has custody and father seems to have left the country. He’s a first-year middle school student at Onodera. Quirk: sky flames? Odd name. Can produce flames that have a calming property.”

“Huh. He only included half of it.”

“Half?”

“His quirk. That’s only half of it, there’s a mental component to it as well.” Why did he only put down the fire portion? Maybe the mental portion may not have fully developed when he got it registered. But it doesn’t really fit with what I know about him. Overly cautious, always does things with a reason.

“He’s testing me.” I realize. “The brat’s actually testing me. He wanted me to notice something was wrong. He wanted to see how I’d respond.”

“You sure you aren’t over-estimating him?”

“No.” I tell him with complete certainty. “You don’t get how smart he is. Half the time it feels like I’m talking to an adult. He takes apart peoples quirks, their personalities for fun. You should see some of the stuff he’s got in that notebook of his. If he didn’t want me to, I likely would have never noticed.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“That’s a stupid question.” I glare at him.

“Right right. Sorry.”

The next day I stake out his apartment early in the morning. He’s the first to leave, the moment he steps through the door he looks right at me, gives a put-out sigh and locks up. Obviously, resigned to my presence. Though it does injure my pride to be spotted right away like that. Just a little.

The walk to school is uneventful. He’s left early enough that there’s hardly anyone else on the road, and students are just now starting to trickle through the gates. I lose him for a few minutes as he entered the building. But it seems that was more than enough time for him to get himself into trouble.

Several larger boys led by a blond-haired boy corner him in the classroom and jostle him around before pushing him to the ground when they get bored of his lack of reaction. No one tried to interfere. Not the other students or the teacher who were all just ignoring it.

As the day goes on, I can feel myself getting angrier and angrier. No matter where in this school he goes, someone is there to mess with him. Destroying property, verbal abuse, physical abuse, its all there, and no one is doing anything about it. The entire school seems to have elected Midoriya as their pariah and hurting him is just the natural course of things or are too afraid to defend him.

It suddenly makes so much more sense that he’s testing me. He’s been trapped in this situation with no help or support for who knows how long, he’s not going to trust someone unless he’s absolutely sure he can. And seeing that I find him out at all hours of the night, he’s not getting any support from home either. If that’s the case everyone in Midoriya’s life have completely and utterly failed him.

So, when school lets out, I’m waiting at the gate for him. He cautiously picks his way through the crowd, careful to avoid the ones who seem to be the main offenders.

“Midoriya.”

“Aizawa-san” He glances anxiously behind him, but generally seems surprised I’m here.

“Let’s grab something to eat. What do you want? It’s my treat.”

“Sushi?” He asks with a nostalgic expression.

“That’s fine.” I lead him to a nearby restaurant and asked for a more secluded booth. Food and drinks are swiftly delivered and Midoriya is starting to fidget anxiously. Might as well get this over with, it won’t be a pleasant conversation for either of us.

“How long has this been going on?”

He can’t seem to bring himself to look at me, wringing his hands under the table where he thinks I can’t see them.

“Look Midoriya, I want to help you. But I can’t if you don’t talk to me.”

“Since I was 5” He whispers, still not looking at me, but I can at least work with this.

“Seven years? That long? No one’s done anything?”

He sadly shakes his head.

“Not even your mother?”

He laughs bitterly. “No one cares about useless quirkless Deku.”

“But you have a quirk”

“I do now. Up until 2 months ago I was quirkless, diagnosed and everything.”

“Do they know?”

“I haven’t told my classmates; I don’t plan to either. It would probably make everything worse. They’d say I was hiding it and looking down on them or something. My mother…she thinks the hero’s made a mistake. That those flames weren’t mine.”

I furrow my eyebrows.

“My flames aren’t natural.” He explains seeing my confusion. “They’re a representation of my will. To use them… you have to be prepared to die. To fight for something you are willing to die for.”

“Which is why your quirk manifested so late.” And isn’t that just a horrible way to get a quirk.

“When I got involved in that attack, I really thought I was going to die. I just kept thinking, I’m going to die, and no one will even_ care._” He takes a stuttering breath, “I decided that _no I wasn’t going to _die _like this._ That I wasn’t going to wait for someone to save me. Because no one ever has. It was up to me if I wanted to live.”

“And then your quirk manifested.”

“I have no issue summoning them whenever. I’ve always had plenty things I was willing to die for. But my mother, mom wanted me to show them to her when I got out of the hospital. And I-I just couldn’t. I couldn’t bare to taint my resolve like that. Because while I have plenty of things I’d die for,” he weakly laughs despondently staring at his hands. “It seems my mother’s love isn’t one of them.”

“Are you alright with that?” His head falls in defeat.

“I’ve already made my decision. If she can’t love me without a quirk, well I don’t want something so shallow and self-serving.”

“I have to ask, has she ever hurt you?”

“She prefers to pretend I don’t exist.” He quietly mutters.

“I’m not great at talking and whatever. But if you feel like you have to buy your mother’s love, she doesn’t deserve a great kid like you.”

Oh, now I’ve gone and done it. The kid stares at me in disbelief tears freely falling down his face.

“Stop crying and eat.”

“Bu-But I’m just so happy!” He wails scrubbing at his eyes with his sleeve. “No one’s ever said something like that about me.”

“Well other people are obviously blind.” That coaxes a smile out of him, and he spends the next few minutes recomposing himself.

“What do you need me to do.”

He considers this for a moment. “Right now, I need out of that school. I can deal with Mom, or rather I don’t have to deal with her at all. But if I stay at Onodera, that’s just asking something bad to happen.”

“You need my help, because your mother won’t withdraw you.” Personally, I’d like to get him out of her care as well, but one thing at a time. And the school is more important at the moment.

“Right.” He looks away with a guilty expression. “Without help I’d end up having to resort to… less savory options.”

“For example?” Even as the question comes out of my mouth, I know I’m going to regret asking.

“Get hurt enough on school grounds that they have no other choice but to send me to the hospital. While I’m there drop some very concerning information that would force a police investigation?” He trails off. “I mean it wouldn’t be hard, my classmates threaten me all the time. They’d have to at least check it out. I know at least one student who wouldn’t be able to do anything but insult me.”

I study his sheepish expression for a moment. “You were really planning on going through with this, weren’t you?”

“Maybe.” He shifts his gaze to his hands like they are suddenly very interesting. “I was definitely considering it.”

“You’re going to be the death of me problem child.” He gives a shaky laugh. “Well you might as well put those stupid plans aside; you won’t be needing them. I would like to bring someone else in on this if that’s alright with you.”

“Who?”

“Nedzu, the principal at UA. He’s much better at dealing with legal matters and any press fall out that may occur than I am.”

“That’s fine.”

“I’ll set up a meeting then. Hand me your phone.” He gives me a confused look, but hands it over without question after unlocking it. “I’ve put my number in. Call me if you need something. I don’t care when or why; I’ll take care of it.”

He takes it back and cradles it in his hands like it’s the best gift he’s ever gotten. “Thank you.” He sniffles.

“Don’t you dare start crying again.” I glare. “Now what should we do for the time being while we get things sorted out?”

“I could skip?”

“I’d rather you didn’t”

“Then I really don’t know what to do. They aren’t going to stop.”

“I’ll talk to Nedzu later today, I’m not patrolling tonight.”

“I’ll be careful.” Not really what I implied, but it’s not like I can stop him from going out. Food finished and payed for, I watch him wave and jog down the street out of sight.

_Well _I think pulling out my phone, _better get on this before he decides to do something drastic._

“Nedzu, I need a favor.”


	3. Chapter 3

Izuku

I feel a bit guilty using Aizawa-san like this, but I’m not going to submit myself to this shit again. Especially since its worse this time since everybody has superpowers, and have no qualms using them against me. If no one will help me on their own, well I don’t really have much choice than to nudge things along a little. I just happened to get lucky Aizawa-san didn’t really need me to do much at all, he took the initiative all on his own.

So, when he’s waiting for me at the gate after school again today, I’m not particularly surprised.

“Midoriya. Nedzu wants to meet to discuss our…options.”

“Ok.” I cast a quick glance behind me. “Let’s go quickly then. Kacchan’s in a particularly bad mood today.”

“He hurt you?”

“No,” I discreetly pull my sleeve down to try and hide the burn where he grabbed me. At least the one on my shoulder isn’t visible. “But I’d rather not cause a scene.”

He stares at my arm for a moment before turning. “I’ll look at your arm later.”

“I’m fine really. It’s not a big deal.”

He gives me a sideward glance that shows he doesn’t believe me at all. The walk and train ride go by in silence. As we approach UA’s entrance my nerves are starting to act up, uneasy about what the outcome of this meeting will be. While I’m sure it won’t end badly, there are a multitude of ways for this to end. Without my noticing I start to pick at the burn on my wrist, the familiar pain somewhat reassuring.

“Stop touching it.”

“What?” I startle.

“Your arm. Stop touching it, you’ll make it worse.”

“Ah,” I glance down at my arm, “Sorry.”

“We’ll stop by the infirmary first and take care of it.” I follow him through the halls, getting confused and curious glances from the few students in the hallways. There’s no one in the infirmary when we get there.

“Sit.” He gestures to a chair and goes about pulling supplies out of the cabinets. “Arm.”

Hesitating for a moment, I place the injured limb in his waiting hand. He gently pulls up the sleeve and I can’t help but wince at the sight of the burn. Red and angry, with blisters in the center and it’s slightly bleeding where I’ve scratched at it.

“Not a big deal huh. This is a second-degree burn; I wonder then what you consider a big deal then.” He gives a meaningful look at the visible scars, but thankfully doesn’t mention them.

I advert my eyes, holding back a flinch. Because as Tsuna I’ve been hurt so much worse than this. Crushed rib cage, lacerations that spanned the entirety of my back. That’s not even counting all those times Reborn’s shot me in the head. Thankfully, he doesn’t push for more and goes about applying burn cream and wrapping it.

“Anywhere else while we’re here?”

“N-” I cut myself off when he glares at me. “My shoulder.” I admit.

Obediently I remove my jacket and shift the shirt out of the way without being asked. He goes about treating it without another word. I can feel him fuming behind me.

“Are you angry?”

“At you no.” He lets out a steadying breath. “At the people who did this to you, who let it get this far? Yes. I’m angry.” He places a plaster over it. “That should do for now.”

I pull my shirt and jacket back into place.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The principal’s office isn’t too far from the infirmary. A mouse-bear creature meets us at the door.

“You must be Midoriya-kun. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise.” They both exchange a glance at my lack of surprise. But that’s really just a testament to all of the insane crap Reborn and my family put me through. Hybrid talking animals just can’t match up to what Mukuro imagined, and then made real, on a whim. I still get nightmares about those eldritch monsters he decided to leave lying around the mansion.

“Aizawa has informed me about your situation. I certainly have some ideas on possible solutions, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.”

“Honestly, I just want to get out of the school. Everything else I can live with.”

“You may be able to live with it, that doesn’t mean you have to.” He points out.

“I-I know that.”

“Well that’s not really what we are here to discuss at the moment so let’s move on. I have a few options for you. The easiest thing to do would be to remove you from the custody of your mother, and then have you transfer schools.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that.” While my emotions about her are complex and conflicting, she’s still my mother. No matter how neglectful she’s become, I can’t help but hope that things will be different.

“That’s understandable.” Nedzu nods.

“You don’t have to decide right now. We weren’t expecting you to, it’s a big decision.” Aizawa assures me.

“We could also cause a scandal at the school and begin a police investigation a bit like you were planning. It would take longer, but they would likely remove you from the school for your protection.”

“What do you think I should do?” I turn to Aizawa-san.

He leans back, looking me directly in the eye. “I feel the first option is the best. Your mother is neglectful and emotionally abusive. It would be in your best interest to be removed from her care. Of course, it is ultimately up to you.”

“I appreciate your honesty.” The words were hard to hear. Inko and Nana are so similar. Both so naive and easily swayed. But I never doubted Nana loved me. I clench my fists. Not like I doubt Inko. “I’d like some time to consider it, but hypothetically, what would happen if I chose to go through with it?”

“As pro-heroes, we have the authority to directly remove you from the custody of your mother.” Nedzu explains. “Child protection services and the police will then be notified, and what happens from there will largely result from what they discover in their investigation.”

“And what will happen to me.”

“There are two possible options. You’ll either be placed in the system, or—”

“I’ll take custody of you.” Aizawa finishes.

“Wait, what?”

“I’m already invested in your well-being. This is just the next logical step.” He gives me a lopsided grin. “Besides, with your nighttime adventures, I’d rather you be in my sights.”

Overwhelmed, I flop back against the couch covering my eyes with my hand. I didn’t know what to expect walking into this meeting. But Aizawa-san volunteering to take me in was not it at all. I try to push aside my intuition insisting I do this, it’s a futile effort really. Because even without it, I know this is the best answer.

“Like I said, we don’t expect an answer right now. But you don’t _have_ to earn your mother’s love. That may not be what you want to hear, but I at least want you to think about it.”

I can feel the tears threatening to spill over, and god do I hate this 12-year-old body, it’s so prone to crying all the damn time. The mental strain from the missing bonds were really not helping my case either. It’s been a very long time since I felt this alone.

The couch next to me shifts and a hand lands comfortingly on my head. I peek through my fingers; I’m caught off guard by the caring expression on his normally neutral face.

“You did good up till now.” He pulls me to his chest, fingers softly carding through my hair. “Leave the rest to us.” My breathing hitches, and suddenly I’m balling. Over a mother who doesn’t love me, a best friend who betrayed and turned the entire school against me, a society who deemed me worthless, the gaping hole and sharp edges in my chest where my bonds used to be, the family I don’t have any more. Everything just overflowing at this moment. Because someone finally, _finally_ listened to me. No one ever had. Not as Tsuna, who had been forced along a path he didn’t want. Or as Izuku who society determined not important enough for his opinion to matter.

I don’t know how long we stay like this, me crying desperately gripping his jersey while he whispers comforting words.

“Better?” He asks when the crying slows down.

“A bit.” I admit pushing myself up.

“Why don’t you clean yourself up, and we’ll grab something to eat at the cafeteria.” He nods over to a door. “Bathrooms over there.”

I pause with my hand on the handle. “Aizawa-san?”

“Something wrong problem child?”

“I-l” I pause taking a steadying breath. “I think I’ll go through with the first option.”

“You sure?”

“Yea.” I recall Inko’s expression from when I refused to show her my flames. Indifferent and distant, it felt like she was looking at stranger. How she went right back to pretending I didn’t exist. I steel my nerves and look back. At his stunned expression I know my eyes have shifted from their normal emerald green, to a blazing amber inferno. A bitter smile appearing on my face “There’s no point fighting for something I’ll never have.”

I slip away into the bathroom before he can respond.


	4. Chapter 4

Aizawa

“This kid.” I let out a heavy sigh.

“How did it go?” I glance towards the main door where Nedzu is just now returning after giving us some privacy when Midoriya broke down.

“He agreed”

“Wonderful! I’ll push things forward then.”

“I wouldn’t mention it to him, he seems to have a lot of unresolved emotions towards his mother. It’s best not to drag all that to the surface right now.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He responds as he busies himself with his plans.

Midoriya emerges from the bathroom looking somewhat put together. You can still clearly tell he’s been crying but there’s no obvious signs.

“Come on,” I drag myself off the couch. “I’m sure Lunch Rush will be happy to get us something to eat. You must be hungry.”

“Ah-yea ok” He blushes.

I watch him out of the corner of my eye as he idly wrings his hands together.

“After we eat, we’ll stop by your house to grab some stuff.”

“There’s no need to do that!”

“Well I certainly can’t leave those notebooks of yours lying around. Might as well grab some other stuff while we are there.”

“Ah right”

After a quick bite to eat we’re off to his apartment in a car borrowed from the school. His room is pretty bare, besides an All Might poster on the wall and his schoolbooks there’s hardly anything else here. He immediately drags the box with his notebooks out from under the bed.

“Grab some clothes.” He goes to dig through the closet. “What else do you need?”

“The books on my desk.”

I go to grab them but accidently knock over a sketchbook. It lands on the floor open to a drawing of a man with curly sideburns and an infuriating smirk. With a gun tipping back his fedora, the man just screams danger.

“Where should I-” He suddenly cuts himself off when he sees the drawing. He drops the clothes in his arms and picks the sketchbook up with great care, holding it tightly to his chest.

“Sorry, I accidently knocked it over.”

“No harm done.” He reluctantly places it in with his other notebooks, before grabbing the clothes he dropped. “Where should I put these?”

“Try to fit them in the box. Whatever doesn’t fit can be replaced.” The clothes he’s pick are all a bit worn out. They’ll need to be replaced anyways, but at least he’ll have something besides his uniform to wear. He goes about stuffing a few changes of clothes in between any of the gaps he can find in the box.

“Is there anything else you want?”

“Not really,” He casually shrugs. “I don’t own much.”

“Let’s get out of here then.” I lift the box, it’s heavy, but manageable.

“Mn.” Just as he is about to open his bedroom door, the front door opens and shuts. He freezes and looks back to me with a helpless expression.

“Just open the door, I’ll take care of it.”

He doesn’t look sure about this but does as I ask anyways, meekly following behind me. We end up encountering his mother in the living room. Midoriya takes after her, overall, they have similar features. The same green hair and eyes.

She startles when she sees me, “Who are you and what are you doing in my apartment?” She aggressively demands

“I’m a pro-hero, Eraserhead. I came to grab some of your son’s belongings seeing as he won’t be living with you any longer.”

“Why?” Confusion is written on her face, but doesn’t seem particularly worried that her son’s being taken away from her.

“He’s been removed from your custody.”

“Oh.” She exclaims slightly surprised. “In that case don’t let me keep you.”

My hands tighten on the box and a growl escapes my throat. How dare she so casually throw him away like this. I’m just about to lay into her when Midoriya catches my sleeve. I glance back, the kid makes a pitiful sight. His expression resigned and his eyes are starting to glaze over with tears. “Please.” He begs with trembling lips. “Don’t.”

I give myself a moment to calm down and turn back to her. She flinches back under my glare and Midoriya tugs on my sleeve again.

“The police and child services should be in contact with you soon.” I roughly push past her not bothering to help when she stumbles. “Let’s go kid.”

The kid hesitates for just a moment, searching for something in her face. When he doesn’t find what he’s looking for, his shoulders drop, and quickly catches up to me. He moves to open the door, taking one last look back.

“Thank you.” He earnestly tells her. “And I’m sorry, I guess. That I couldn’t be what you wanted.” He decisively shuts the door without giving her a chance to respond.

“You alright?”

He sighs tiredly. “I will be.”

I drop the box in the trunk while he gets in the passenger side. When I get in the car, I find him with his knees pulled tightly to his chest his face hiding in his arms.

“Kid?” He flinches when I place a hand on his good shoulder but makes no motion to pull away.

He shakes his head to show he’s doesn’t want to speak right now. I guess that’s all the response I’m going to get at the moment. Moving my hand from his shoulder I start the car and begin the route back to my apartment.

“Is it bad that I wanted her to fight for me?” He breaks the silence, dull eyes blankly staring out the window.

“No.” I clench the steering wheel hard enough for my knuckles to turn white. “I wanted her to fight too.”

And I really did. Because if she put up any sign of resistance it meant she cared about the kid, even just a little. Those hopes were quickly dashed. She just threw him aside like he was worth nothing to her. It just makes everything worse, since everyone treats him like he’s expendable.

“Tomorrow, I’ll go with you to withdraw from school.” I switch topics, knowing that he doesn’t really want to discuss this anymore. “The police will also want to talk to you at some point.”

He lets one of his legs down, resting his cheek on his knee. “Ok.”

The kid doesn’t say anything else for the rest of the ride, or when we get enter my apartment.

“I have a spare bedroom through there. The bathroom is across the hall, and my room is down the hall. If you hear stuff falling that’s just the cat. He likes to knock stuff over.”

He nods shifting his grip on the box moving it into his room. I hover by the door, trying to give him some privacy, but worried about how downcast he’s acting. I’m hoping that he’s only emotionally and mentally exhausted. A lot has happened within a short period of time and he’s had little time to adjust to it all.

“Try to get some rest.” He flops face down on the mattress, not bothering to get under the covers and leaving his legs to awkwardly hang off. A few seconds later his breathing even out, dead asleep.

I shut off the light and settle down to work on the backlog of paperwork on the living room couch. Midoriya stumbles through into the living room several hours later still looking half asleep.

“Trouble sleeping?”

“Always.” He grumbles glaring at nothing.

“Nightmares?”

“Sometimes.” He admits yawning. “It’s usually my quirk though.”

“What’s it tonight?”

“Quirk.”

“Is there something I can do?”

“Just,” He sighs slumping back on the couch beside me. “Stay here. It’s better when I’m not alone.”

His eyes drift close again, eyebrows furrowed in discomfort. Abandoning the rest of the paperwork I turn the TV on flipping through the channels till I land on a mind-numbing reality show.

“You like this?”

“No. I like to make fun of it.”

“That makes more sense.” He cracks a wry smile.

We watch the unnecessary drama, occasionally poking fun at the actor’s stupidity. I have to admit it’s kind of nice. I can feel myself starting to drift off towards the end of the episode when a weight falls on my shoulder. I smile, looks like he managed to fall back to sleep. Not willing to wake him, I carefully scoop him up into my arms, and bring him to his room. He barely rouses when I place him down on the bed and pull the covers up. I’m just about to leave when a hand grabs the hem of my shirt.

“Reborn.” He mumbles. Gently, I detach his hand from my shirt and place it next to him. Must be dreaming.

Kid safely in bed, I head to bed as well. Tomorrow’s going to be another long day after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of the chapters I have stockpiled right now, I'll try to post new chapters weekly. Thanks for all the support!

Aizawa

The school is horrible. There’s no discipline at all, kids freely using their quirks in the hallways. Regardless of the fact it’s illegal. The principal is quick to see us thankfully. I don’t want either of us to be here any longer than we have to be.

“Welcome, welcome.” The principal ushers us into his office with an ingratiating smile. I have to wonder if we would get this treatment if I hadn’t informed them I was a pro-hero.

Midoriya takes a seat close to me. Fiddling with the hem of his shirt in anxiety.

“Now what can I help you with?”

“To get straight to the point I will be withdrawing Midoriya from this school.”

“There’s no need for you to that. I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“I wasn’t asking. I was merely informing you. As his guardian, I will not allow him to attend a school that lets other students harm him.”

“Surely there’s a misunderstanding.” He tries to mollify me. “Midoriya is quirkless after all, he’s not as hardy as his peers.”

“There are several things wrong about what you just said. Firstly, I observed him at school two days ago because I was worried that he continued to acquire numerous injuries. Just yesterday I had to treat second degree burns. The entire time I was watching, I witnessed severe bullying by multiple students. And not once did a teacher interfere even when it was happening right in front of them. Secondly, he is not quirkless.”

“But no one has ever seen him use it!” He argues, paling and becoming more anxious as he comes to realize just how much trouble the schools in.

“Because he’s too sensible for that. It’s illegal. Not that this school seems to really care about that, since he’s been intentionally injured multiple times by other student’s quirks. He has a fire-based quirk, it’s not something he can show off because he feels like it.”

“I-I” He glares accusingly at Midoriya. “Why didn’t you ever say anything!”

“Don’t look at me like that.” He stares down the principal eyes blazing amber, anxiety suddenly gone. “This is on you. You and the other teachers were well aware of what was going on. You just chose to do nothing.” He cracks a cruel mocking smile, “Because no one would care if useless, quirkless Deku was used a stress reliever for the other students. Right?”

The principal flinches back at the statement.

“You chose to do nothing.” An invisible weight pushes down on us as he delivers those damning words. The principal’s eyes are blown wide in fear, like a deer caught in the headlights, he can’t look away from Midoriya. “I hope you can bear the consequences.”

“Midoriya. That’s enough” His eyes meet mine, fading back to their normal green, the pressure slipping away like it was never there.

“Sorry.” He blushes, back to his normal awkward self.

“That’s all we needed; we’ll be leaving now.” The principal is still in a daze when I shut the door to the office. Midoriya has his eyes shut and is rubbing his temples clearly in pain.

“Are you alright? What was that?”

“I’m alright, just a headache. That was—new.”

“Quirk exhaustion?”

“Maybe. The first time I used my flames, I passed out. Haven’t really used it again.”

“There were flames?”

“They weren’t visible. I told you, they aren’t natural flames.”

“Your quirk makes no sense.”

He gives a weak laugh of agreement.

“Let’s head over to UA. Recovery Girl might be able to give us some direction.”

“Mn”

We almost manage to make it out of the building without running into trouble. I’m starting to think the problem child is a trouble magnet. Nothing seems to go smoothly when he’s involved.

“Where do you think you’re going you shitty Deku!” Someone screams from behind us. It’s that blond ringleader from before.

Midoriya lets out a tired sigh “Not that I really concerns you Kacchan, but I withdrew from school.”

“What the school finally get tired of your uselessness?” A vicious grin breaking out on the boy’s face.

Midoriya shakes his head. “No, the school is the one in trouble. You are too for that matter.”

“Are you looking down on me?!” He growls small explosions popping on his hands. I scowl he was the one who left those burns.

“Does it really matter?” Midoriya sighs “You think I am no matter what I do. Any way’s you really should be more careful. Using your quirk in public is illegal.”

“So what! No one’s going to stop me.”

“You sure are bold.” I cut in. “Breaking the law so unrepentantly of in front a pro-hero.”

The explosions immediately stop. “Useless people like him need to be put in their place.” He scowls clearly unhappy to be called out on his behavior.

“Those are the word of a villain.” I point out.

“The hell are you talking about!” He bristles at the accusation. “I’m going to be the best hero. Better than All Might.”

“Stop provoking him Aizawa-san.” Midoriya groans pushing me to the doors. “I’d like to say it’s been nice knowing you Bakugou, but we both know that’s a lie.” The lack of nickname a clear dismissal. Midoryia shoots a way to happy smile over his shoulder as he pushes me through the door. “After all, you’ve been my own personal villain for the last 7 years.”

The door shuts on a scream of rage and an explosion rattles the door.

“Now who’s provoking him.” We sprint out of the school gate; luckily, he’s not chasing us so he at least has the peace of mind to know that would turnout badly for him.

“I wanted to make him think.”

“You just wanted to get back at him.”

“That too.” He concedes with a halfhearted shrug, leaning heavily on the fence pinching at the bridge of his nose. “Dealing with him is always so exhausting.”

“Come on.” I grab him under his arm when he sways. “Let’s get to UA.”

He lets himself be maneuvered onto the train, which he nearly falls asleep on, and then into the infirmary.

“Oh! Who’s this Shouta!” Guiding an unsteady Midoriya to a bed.

“Midoriya Izuku my new ward as of yesterday. I think he has quirk exhaustion, but I’d appreciate it if you would give him a once over. I suspect it’s been a long time since he’s actually had a physical.”

“Of course, it’s no trouble at all. Anything I should be aware of?” The kid’s already half asleep as Recovery Girl pokes and prods at him. Occasionally trying to push her hands away in vain.

“He’s a late bloomer, quirk came in about 2 and a half months ago, there’s a fire and a mental component from what he’s been able to figure out. The mental is mainly an alarm system that alerts him to danger, it keeps him up at night.

I haven’t seen the fire, but earlier today he says he used it to intimidate the principal at his old school, the first time he used it he passed out. As for injuries, there’s a second degree burn on his left wrist and shoulder from yesterday caused by an explosion quirk. Those are the only ones I’m aware of, but I have seen him holding his ribs and generally bruised. There is scarring as well, but I don’t know how extensive, he’s been physically abused by his classmates since he was 5. He’s 12 now.”

“I see.” She narrows her eyes in disgust. “I’d like to get X-rays, there’s no telling what’s hiding.”

“That’s fine.”

“Well he definitely has quirk exhaustion.” Giving an amused shake of her head at the drooling Midoriya. “Hold him up while I get his shirt. Best to do it while he’s asleep.”

Midoriya doesn’t even stir when I reposition him so Recovery Girl can take his shirt off.

“Tch. Poor kid.” She winces in sympathy. His entire torso is littered with starburst scars and bruises in various stages of healing. Recovery Girl palpates a particularly nasty bruise on his side.

“It doesn’t feel broken at least. The X- ray will let us know for sure. Flip him on his side.”

His back is worse, there are several healing burns in the middle of his back. Recovery Girl deftly treats them before coaxing his shirt back on and letting him lie back down. The X-rays don’t take long to get the results.

“Someone put this kid through the wringer. Good news, he currently has no broken bones.”

“And the bad news.”

“There is evidence of hairline fractures basically everywhere, but are most concentrated on his hands, arms and ribs. That rib,” She motions to a slightly crooked rib, “broke and then healed incorrectly. He could have died if it punctured his lung.”

I clench my fists in rage. Because I know, no one would have noticed. He’d end up dying alone due to some brats thinking they could use Midoriya as a punching bag.

“You did good to get him out of wherever he was when you did. Some of these breaks are years old.” She shakes her head in disgust. “That’s not even counting all the scars. You might want to bring him to a psychiatrist.”

“I’m not sure how that will go over. I’ve basically overturned his entire life in the last 2 days, I’d like for him to at least adjust before I spring anything else on him.”

“Just a thought.” She glances at the clock. “I’ve got a meeting, let him sleep it off for a few hours he should be fine.”

“Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure.”

I let myself collapse in a free chair, determined to wait until he wakes up.

Recovery Girl said I did good to get him out of the situation when I did. I slump back in defeat staring vacantly at the ceiling. She’s wrong. Remembering all those scars, the broken bones, his close brush with death. Knowing all that, I can only regret I didn’t get him out of their sooner.


	6. Chapter 6

Izuku

I wake up in UA’s infirmary with no clear recollection of how I got there. I remember the mess with Bakugou, but everything beyond that is hazy. I rub the remaining drowsiness out of my eyes. A noise draws my attention to Aizawa-san, softly snoring in the chair next to the bed. A warm fluffy feeling fills my chest.

“Aizawa-san.” I move over to shake his shoulder.

“What do you want problem child.” He grumbles, irritated at being woken.

“Shouldn’t we head back?”

“Probably.” He says stretching, back popping as he does so. “Are you feeling better?”

“I am. Still a little tired, but my headache is gone.”

He nods yawning.

“So,” I ask as we make our way out of the school. “How exactly did we get here?”

“You don’t remember?” He raises an eyebrow at me.

“I mean not clearly? I remember Bakugou, not much beyond that.”

“You were pretty out of it. I basically had to manhandle you here.”

“Ah” I rub the back of my neck. “Sorry about that.”

“Why? It’s not like you did it on purpose.” He assures me. “Your quirk is new and untrained, something we will eventually have to address, but I won’t fault you for quirk exhaustion when you’ve had little time to learn how to use it.”

A chill goes up my spine at the mention of training.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, I must have had an odd expression on my face.

“Nothing, I just suddenly got the feeling that training from hell is in my near future.”

“You’d be right.” He laughs at my future suffering.

“As long as you don’t make me run around in my underwear screaming my regrets, I think I’ll be just fine.” I deadpan. Because not matter what he dreams up, he will never be able to live up to Reborn level shenanigans. He can try all he likes, it’s just not possible to top those first few months. Running around in my underwear was the least of my worries. Reborn’s ‘training’ has scarred me for multiple lifetimes.

He stops dead in his tracts and just gives me the most confused stare, trying to decide if I was actually serious or not. My completely impassive expression not helping matters.

“What the actual hell problem child?” He asks completely bewildered.

I just laugh. Seems like Reborn’s antics are considered crazy even in a world of superheroes and villians.

* * *

Aizawa

After another long day the both of us were more than happy to just sit on the couch and watch bad reality TV. After giving his statement to the police tomorrow, things should finally start to calm down when Midoriya settles into his new school.

“SHOOOOOUUTA!!!!” The door slams open Hizashi barging his way into the apartment like usual. He only makes it a step through the door before getting pelted in the face with the remote, causing him to comically lose his balance and fall. Beside me, Midoriya is dumbly staring at his now empty hand like he doesn’t understand what just happened. If he did that accidently he has amazing luck or great aim. Either way the look on Hizashi’s face is priceless. I will remember it always.

“What was that for!” He springs back to his feet holding his face.

“Ah I’m sorry!” The kid snaps out of his daze and starts flailing. “It was an accident I didn’t mean to! You just startled me!”

“Who are you?” He finally notices Midoriya’s presence. Sometimes, he really makes me wonder how he became a pro-hero.

“I’m Midoriya Izuku. Nice to meet you?” He gives a sheepish grin.

“He’s my ward.” I redirect him, taking mercy on the kid. Hizashi’s eyes snap to me in disbelief. I glare, warning him to choose his next words wisely.

“I never thought I’d see the day.” He sniffs overcome with emotion, “My little Shouta’s all grown up.”

Midoriya covers his mouth and looks away, trembling with suppressed laughter.

“You on the other hand haven’t grown up at all. You can’t just barge in here screaming whenever you feel like it.”

“Oh, don’t be such a stick in the mud Shouta.” He flops onto the free space on the couch and swings an arm over my shoulder. Giving me an infuriating smile. “You secretly like my visits.”

I scowl and roughly push him off the couch. “Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”

“Right!” He reclaims his previous spot. “I’m Yamada Hizashi. The pro hero Present Mic! Nice to meet you little listener!”

“You’re Present Mic!?” Midoriya’s eyes take on that glint he gets when analyzing quirks. And… that’s my queue to ignore the oncoming rant. Being subjected to it once was more than enough. It’s Hizashi’s problem now, he brought this on himself.

I leave Hizashi to the kid’s mercy and tune them out. Occasionally, having to dodge Midoriya’s over enthusiastic flailing. The kid runs off somewhere after awhile, leaving HIzashi just staring at me in dumbfounded horror.

“Where did you find this kid?”

“A roof in the middle of the night.” His eyes widen at the implication.

“Was he…” He trails off not sure how to ask.

“Who knows?” I don’t think he was, but it’s hard to tell. I narrow my eyes; he was perfectly willing to grievously hurt himself to get out of that school. If I hadn’t stepped in when I had, it’s hard to tell what he would end up doing. His sense of self-preservation is clearly warped.

“Here it is!” Midoriya unknowingly interupts, proudly presents one of his notebooks, and Hizashi just cringes. You thought you could get away from the problem child that easily? How naive. He takes the notebook and flips through it pausing on a few pages that catch his interest as Midoriya watches in expectation.

“This is really thorough.” Hizashi comments, Midoriya preens at the compliment. “You sure know a lot about heroes. Are you planning to become one?”

The kid’s aura takes a sudden shift at the question. His excited grin falls into a small frown, all together becoming rather subdued. I’m rather curious myself. He’d make a great hero; he has the personality and temperament for it. Add on his terrifying analysis skills and his quirk is basically just overkill. It’s not unreasonable to say he’d become a top hero if he received proper training.

“It’s fine if you aren’t!” He tries to backpedal when he sees the sudden change.

“I- I don’t know.” He says taking the book back staring intently at it. “That used to be all I wanted. Even when everyone said I couldn’t. Before I- “he shakes his head cutting himself off. It’s obvious to me he meant before he got his quirk. “Now, I don’t know.”

“Why the change?” I ask.

“It’s just…I get the feeling if I begin to fight, I’ll never be able to stop.” He looks at me with tired and impossibly old eyes. “I don’t want to fight forever.”

He shakes his head before giving a self-deprecating smirk. “I’ll probably end up as a hero anyways though. I never was able to keep myself from butting my head into other people’s problems. And well,” He chuckles like he’s privy to an inside joke we aren’t in on, mirth dancing on his face. “I’d rather not end up as a vigilante.”

“Do something stupid like that I’d turn you in myself.” I warn.

“I don’t doubt it!” He beams at me. He takes a quick glance at the clock. “It’s late, I’m going to bed.”

“Remember, we’re meeting the detective at 9am. We need to be out of here by 8:30.”

“Ok. Goodnight.”

“Night.” We both call after him.

Once we’re sure he’s in his room, Hizashi crosses his arms and gives me a serious look.

“What the hell Shouta? When’d you get a ward?”

“Yesterday.”

“Seriously?” He questions clearly surprised by the suddenness. “This isn’t something you’d normally do.” So why is this kid different, he implies but doesn’t say.

“I met him during on one of my patrols. He ended up accidently becoming an informant.” I start to explain, knowing he won’t let this drop. Besides, it’ll be good to get this mess off my chest, I’ll likely end up needing his help anyways. “His quirk is amazing at gathering information and picking up on ongoing crimes.” I ignore his shock and continue. “But there was also something clearly wrong with the kid. He kept showing up with new injuries and is incredibly cautious and jumpy. So, I kept tabs on him.

I eventually decided to follow him around to see what I could discover. Only to find out he was his schools dedicated punching bag. _His entire school_ Hizashi. No one stepped in to help, not even the _teachers_ who were _well aware_ of what was going on.” I curl my lips in disgust, Hizashi just as visibly angry that this had been allowed to happen. “So, I confronted him to find this shit has been going on for _years._”

“And his family?” He growls through clenched teeth, already expecting not to like the answer.

“Dad’s out of the picture. Mom’s negligent and emotionally abusive.” I drop my head into my hands. “She walked in while we were grabbing some of his things.” He winces when I glare up at him. “You know what she said? She said _don’t let me keep you._ While he was still _there.”_

“Sounds like she’s a real piece of work.” He grimaces, disgusted at her callous disregard for her own child. “How’d he end up with you though?”

“He was getting desperate. I had to step in before he decided to do something drastic.”

“How desperate are we talking?” He asks warily.

“The kind of desperate that ends in a hospital.” His face twists into a combination of anger and pity.

“You sure know how to pick’em.” He sighs. “You somehow picked up an equally terrifying and brilliant kid.”

“Call him what he is, a problem child.” I grumble with no real heat behind it. “We can’t go anywhere without him attracting trouble.”

“You always did have a soft spot for problem children.” Hizashi teases, poking at my cheek with a taunting smirk. I feel I’m fully justified in shoving him off the couch again.


	7. Chapter 7

Aizawa

“You know, I was hoping not to see you anytime soon after the last time we met.” Detective Tsukauchi gently scolds Midoriya with a slight smile. He had apparently volunteered to interview Midoriya when he found out what had been going on. Whether out of guilt for not seeing it, or some other reason, everyone involved decided it was best for Midoriya to be familiar with the person questioning him.

“Ah,” He averts his eyes and rubs the back of his neck. “In my defense I didn’t go looking for trouble this time?”

Tsukauchi shakes his head in exasperation. “We’ve got a lot to get through, lets relocate to my office. Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Coffee.” I request.

“Waters fine.”

Tsukauchi tosses Midoriya a bottle of water from the communal fridge.

“How about you meet us there, it’s right through that door.” Tsukauchi gestures to his office with his shoulder as he goes about making two cups of coffee. Midoriya gives him a look that makes it clear he knows what we are doing but goes anyways.

“What’s so important you didn’t want the problem child to know?”

“Just wanted to make sure if there is anything I should avoid asking about.”

“Try not to push too far into anything considering his mother. Also, don’t lie to him. He’ll know and you’ll lose any trust you have. Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything you need to avoid. If he doesn’t want to answer a question, he’ll likely try to derail you. If it’s not important, let him.”

“Right.” He nods in understanding. “Will he want to press charges?”

“I doubt it.” I take the coffee from him. “He’s too much of a bleeding heart.”

“That’s a shame. I still haven’t interviewed Bakugou yet, I was waiting to see what Midoriya wanted. But even with what I know from the school it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth knowing he’s going to get off with a slap on the wrist.”

I grunt in agreement, following him to the office.

“Now then,” He begins as soon as everyone’s seated. “There are a few things I’d like to go over before we start. Firstly, my quirk is called Lie Detector, in other words I’ll know if your lying.” I almost miss the glint of realization in Midoriya’s eyes when he hears the detective’s quirk. “Secondly, there I’ll be asking you some… uncomfortable questions. It’s alright if you don’t want to answer, but I will ask you to try your best.”

“Ok.”

“Then to start, I’d like you to describe what’s been happening.” Midoriya slowly begins to narrate the last seven years of his life to the detective in a monotone voice with his gaze never once leaving the floor in front of him. Tsukauchi occasionally interrupts to ask for clarification or for more information, but overall, Midoriya is concise and thorough in his story.

Questions about Bakugou and his mother clearly make him uncomfortable, but he manages to stumble his way through those with some difficulty and a bit of prompting on my end. It ends up taking a better part of an hour to get through the whole thing.

“You did a good job.” Tsukauchi praises. “I know it wasn’t easy to do this.”

“What happens now?”

“Well, we certainly have enough evidence to prevent your mother from trying to get back custody if she ever tried. Other than that… it’s up to you how far you want to push things.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can press charges against your mother, Bakugou and the school. With everything we have, you’d definitely win the case.”

His gaze shoots up from the floor to meet Tsukauchi’s. “No- I don’t. I already got what I wanted!” He panics.

“Calm down Midoriya.” I grab his arm to prevent him from standing. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

I let go when he slumps back in his chair tiredly rubbing at his eyes. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” I assure him.

“So, I’m assuming you don’t want to press charges?”

“Not against Bakugou or mom.” He firmly agrees, as I had predicted “You can do whatever you want to the school.”

“Ok. But I need you to understand, just because you won’t press charges doesn’t mean we can just let Bakugou off. He broke the law knowingly and willfully. He needs to be held accountable for his actions.”

Midoriya hugs his knees up to his chest trying to make himself look small. “I don’t want to be the one to ruin his dream of being a hero.”

“Don’t blame yourself for his actions. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He has to bare the consequences for his actions.” I return the words he said to the principle.

“But…”

“Then how about this.” Tsukauchi sighs. “He’ll get a mark on his record for quirk related violence. That part is non-negotiable” He adds when he sees Midoriya try to argue. “However, if he shows that he’s trying to make up for it, it won’t be held against him when he applies to a hero school.”

“That’s…” Midoriya frowns, clearly not happy with the result. And honestly, neither am I. But for entirely different reasons. Midoriya was probably hoping to push the blame on the school and let Bakugou off easily. I’d prefer he face real consequences and not just a slap on the wrist. Based on what I know of him, he’ll likely apply to UA. In that case, I will be able to warn the principal and other teachers to be on the look out and to not allow any sort of poor behavior.

“That’s the best I can do.”

“He wouldn’t have gotten of this lightly if you had gone through with your plan. He would have ended up in jail, and there would have been nothing you could do about it.” I add. Tsukauchi shoots me a questioning look, but I just shake my head.

“…Fine.” He reluctantly agrees.

“That should about wrap things up.” He closes his notepad. “However, I would like to ask you a favor.”

“What kind of favor?” He slightly unfurls himself.

“I know you give Aizawa-san information.” Midoriya glances over to me in shock, I shrug back. “I was wondering if you would be willing to be a police consultant if a case came up.”

“I wouldn’t mind? But how well do you know what my intuition does.”

“Not much. Aizawa-san was pretty tight lipped about it. From my own deductions it lets you know if there’s danger nearby.”

“You’re partially right.” He quietly debates how much he wants to reveal. “Do you have anyone you need to track down?”

“A couple at the moment.”

“If you get me some basic information on them, I could point you in their general location. I don’t think you’d want me to lead you there.”

“You can do that?” He asks in surprise. I have to say I am a bit surprised too.

“Well, I’ve led Aizawa-san to criminals before, it’s generally the same principal. These people will be recognized as dangerous by my intuition, and therefore I should be able to pick them out from the mass of data with some additional information as long as there in my range. I’ve never actually tried it before, but I can tell generally where Bakugou is right now.”

“That’s amazing.” Midoriya flushes. “Hold on let me go grab a file.”

He excitedly leaves the office, I give Midoriya a considering look.

“It’s not just people who are dangerous is it that you can find.” I state.

“No.” He confirms voice dropping to a whisper. “It’s anyone in my range. There are exceptions though. The people I know very well… I could find them no matter where they are.”

“Keep that to yourself.” It would be a pain if it ever got out he could do that. His quirk already makes him a target. No need to add a billboard saying ‘Please kidnap me! I’m valuable’ to it.

“I know.”

Tsukauchi comes back with a few files, unknowingly interrupting. He hands over the files to Midoriya, letting him flip through the pages.

“Do you have a map?”

“How big?”

“The entire city.” Tsukauchi freezes in shock, before unfolding a map he pulled from his desk. Midoriya pulls a few different colored sticky notes and sticks them to the map, and then places a sticky note of the same color in the folder. “These two are currently out of the city. They aren’t in my range.”

“You’ve been a great help Midoriya.”

“If this is going to continue, I have a condition.”

“Aizawa-san?”

“I don’t mind if Midoriya helps you out. But I expect you to keep your knowledge of his quirk and personal information to yourself.”

“Of course.” He seriously agrees. “It’d be a disaster if any villains found out. I’ll send any requests I have through you. That should throw off any suspicion.”

“And you problem child.” He withers under my glare. “Are not to go off and find any of these people or anyone else your intuition warns you about on your own. Either I or another pro-hero will take care of it. Am I clear?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now let’s get out of here, we’ve still got to go shopping.” Tsukauchi sees us to the door.

“Try to stay out of trouble this time Midoryia!”

“No promises!” Midoriya cheekily calls back. I snort in amusement. Cheeky brat.


	8. Chapter 8

Tsukauchi

“I’m Detective Tsukauchi, I called earlier about speaking with your son.” I introduce myself to the woman who answered the door.

“Of course, come in.” Bakugou-san ushers me into the living room, where her husband and son are waiting on the couch.

“Thank you for agreeing to speak with me.”

“It’s no trouble. I suspect you must be busy interviewing a lot of students, what with the shit show Onadera’s apparently become. I can’t believe it got so bad the school actually had to shut down.”

I blink in surprise, slightly confused by how agreeable she is. With how much trouble her son is in, I didn’t exactly expect a warm welcome. I had been both looking forward to and dreading this meeting. I cast a quick glance at the boy, who is bouncing his leg with his arms crossed very deliberately not looking at anyone in the room. Now, I’m edging more towards dread.

“You aren’t aware?” I cautiously ask.

“Aware of what?” I’m barely able to suppress the grimace that tries to appear on my face. Looks like I’ve won myself the privilege of informing the boy’s parents he’s a criminal. He must have hidden his activities very well to keep his parents clueless for so many years.

“That your son’s the ringleader of this entire mess.” I bluntly put it out there, like ripping off a band aid, it’s more painful the longer you draw it out.

“That- that can’t be right.” The husband stutters in disbelief.

“Katsuki would never do something so stupid! Yeah, he may be a bit foul mouthed but he’d never intentionally harm someone!”

Throughout this exchange the boy is suspiciously quiet. 

“My apologies, but whether he is responsible or not isn’t up for debate. We have multiple students and teachers all pointing to your son as the culprit, as well as security camera footage of him intentionally harming other students with his quirk. I had assumed the school had informed you of this. Apparently, I assumed wrong.”

“What the hell Katsuki!” His mother screams in response to the iron clad evidence. “What the hell were you thinking!”

“Shut up you Old Hag!” He gets in her face and screams back with equal force. “Someone had to put that shitty Deku in his place!”

“And where was that?” I interject, cutting them off before things could escalate further. “Below your foot?”

“Who the fuck is Deku?” Bakugou’s mother growls out. Her son forcibly tears himself from her glare refusing to answer.

“I believe that’s what he calls Midoriya Izuku, your son’s main target.” I offer, seeing we won’t be able to move on unless she gets an answer.

“But you two are best friends! You were going to become heroes together!”

“From what I’ve heard it’s been 7 years since they could be considered any type of ‘friend’.” I inform them.

“What did that shit stain say about me?” Katsuki demands, heatedly glaring at me, explosions popping threateningly on his palms. How he thinks he can get away with acting like a self-righteous ass when he’s the one in the wrong, is beyond me, but he’s obviously had a lot of practice at it.

“Not that it’s any of your concern, but he didn’t say anything.” I lie, it’s not like they’ll know any different. And I don’t want Bakugou to go after him because he thought Midoriya sold him out. “He didn’t have to; the scars spoke for themselves. I have to say, you really screwed yourself over with that one. Explosions leave very recognizable scars, and you made sure to leave no shortage of evidence. Someone saw them and went digging. And all the evidence happened to lead right back to you.”

I haven’t personally seen the scars past his arms, even those were pretty extensive, but according to Aizawa they cover most of his back and torso as well.

“Where did we go wrong?” She asks gloomily into her hands. “How did it come to this?”

A silence comes over the room her questions rendering the room speechless, no one seeming to have an answer for her. In truth, a lot of people are at fault. Katsuki’s at fault for his own actions, his parents and teachers are at fault for not stopping him or teaching him better, societies at fault for instilling the idea that those with powerful quirks can do whatever they want. Even Midoriya has some blame in this for not standing up for himself sooner. Even if the teachers and his mother didn’t do anything, that doesn’t mean the police, or a pro-hero wouldn’t. It’s a difficult question with no clear answer, and it really highlights just how messed up today’s society is.

Because _something is very wrong_ when children are encouraged to use this level of violence against another each other.

“What will happen to Katsuki?” The husband worriedly asks, breaking me out of my thoughts while his wife despondently hides her face, muttering obscenities to herself under her breath.  
“You’re very lucky Midoriya isn’t looking to press charges. If he did, with the evidence we have against your son, there’s no doubt he would be facing criminal charges and jail time.”

They all let out a sigh of relief at the news, which I take the slightest bit of sadistic joy in crushing with my next sentence.

“However, I also can’t allow him to go unpunished for such extensive crimes. He will receive a permanent mark on his record for quirk violence. This will be visible to any place of employment, and what I believe is more relevant to your son, any hero school he may apply to.”

“WHAT!” Katsuki howls leaping out of his seat. Instinctively, I flinch back at the explosion he lets off, the edge of the explosion just a little too close for comfort. “YOU CAN’T FUCKING DO THAT!”

“I can.” I calmly respond, letting my professionalism slip a bit. “And I already have, I’m just informing you of what’s already been done. This record will follow you around wherever you go. Just like all those scars you left behind, you’ll never be able to get away from it.”

“Does this mean Katsuki can’t become a hero anymore?” his father questions, ever the voice of reason in this family, while struggling to hold back his son from jumping across the table that separates us.

“It will certainly be more difficult. Hero schools rightfully tend to frown upon these kinds of things, but it’s not impossible. He’ll have to show them he’s trying to improve himself.”

“How would he do that?” His mother rejoins the conversation after slightly recovering from her shock.

“Well.” I eye Katsuki’s palms that are still alight with small explosions “After seeing this little display, a quirk counselor will be mandatory. But other than that,” I pin the boy in place with a glare. “You better think long and hard about how to make up for this. You have a little under two years, I hope you make the best of it.”

“Surely you have some recommendations on what he should do?” She tries to pushes.

“I do. I won’t say anything though. I don’t agree with how lightly he’s gotten off. He’s dug himself into this hole, he can dig himself out.” I flippantly state.

“You mean you’re choosing those extra’s over me,” He bristles in indignation, seemingly offended by the very notion he’s not the best. “my quirk is better than all of them! They can’t compete with me; I’m going to be a better hero than All Might!” He desperately defends himself.

“Really?” I ask incredulously at his delusions. “Because I don’t see it. All I see right now, is a spoiled brat who thinks everyone is below him and uses his quirk to ensure it stays that way. I don’t know how you came to that conclusion, but I believe you’ve got your definition of hero and villain flipped. You brought this on yourself.”

He bares his teeth and growls at me.

“Sit the fuck down Katsuki.” His mother yanks him of his feet. “Your only making things worse for yourself. Is it possible for Katsuki to meet Izuku, to apologize?”

“I’m not apologizing to that shitty nerd!” Snaps in disgust, only to be met with a whack to the back of his head from his mother.

“No, his guardian has made it clear your son isn’t to be let near Midoriya.” I tell her ignoring the outburst. “Besides, I doubt Midoriya would appreciate such an empty apology.”

“His guardian?” The father’s brow wrinkles in confusion, catching the discrepancy. “Don’t you mean his mother Inko?”

“I am unable to comment on that.”

“Did something happen to her?”

“No, she’s fine. It’s nothing you need to be aware of.” I effectively cut off that line of questioning. “Do you have any other concerns?” They shake their heads while Katsuki glares murderously at the floor. “Well then I’ll show myself out.” I stand giving a meaningful look to the boy. “I’m sure you have a lot to discuss.”

“Yes.” She gives a hard look to her son, who returns it in kind. “We do.”

I shut the front door on a growing screaming match between the boy and his mother, interspersed with the sounds of explosions. I let myself slump on the closed door to recollect myself for a moment, trying to rub away the fatigue at the bridge of my nose.

That could have gone better. I let out a sigh, as I make my way back to the station, opting to take the long way back.

“Then again,” I mumble under my breath. “it could have gone worse.”


	9. Chapter 9

Izuku

I dreaded the start of training. I already began to get back in shape long before I met Aizawa-san. It was one of the first things I did. The other was ‘borrow’ some money from my mother’s debit card and invest in stocks, just in case I ended up on the streets.

But, training… it’s a deep-seated fear. Even after Tsuna took the mantel of Decimo, Reborn used additional ‘training’ to threaten me into doing what he wanted. His favorite was an obstacle course, for maximum damage and entertainment. Sometimes it was for a good cause. Others… he was just bored. Either way, it was all around a miserable experience. And gave great motivation to keep him entertained.

On the plus side? I can easily block out unnecessary stimuli and react to danger without even thinking about it while training.

Bullets? Explosions? I’ve already gotten out of the way before I’ve even had time to register them.

Verde’s weird machines? Illusions? Kyouya? A bit trickier to get around, but little more than an obstacle. Though, Kyouya had a tendency to chase after me.

Reborn was the only one able to get a reaction out of me when I was zoned in like that. Usually manifesting as a girly screech that Tsuna unfortunately never grew out of.

Aizawa-san and Nedzu-san, who allowed us to use UA grounds as long as he could look on, wanted to get a feeling for my baseline abilities. What better way to do that than a basic obstacle race? The course consisted of a mock city that had numerous traps and obstacles to get around. It also had targets set up throughout the course to help work on aim while in difficult positions to aim.

Needless to say, I obliterated the thing. Granted, with my current physical state my time wasn’t amazing. But there was nothing they threw at me that was able to trip me up, I’ve seen it all before. And it’s not like they’d make it legitimately dangerous. In their minds I have absolutely no training.

“That was…unexpected.” Nedzu-san seems to be at a loss for words. “I had thought you would have some difficulty getting past a few of the obstacles, but well you always seem to surprise me.”

I weakly laugh rubbing the back of my neck.

“Was it because of your intuition?” Aizawa questions.

“Probably” I shrug, taking the out. It’s a better excuse than Reborn induced trauma. “I just seemed to know the best method to tackle each obstacle.”

“That’s quite interesting. What else can your quirk do? I’m afraid Aizawa didn’t tell me much.” He gets an excited twinkle in his eye. I look over to Aizawa, wondering if it’s alright to say anything.

“He’ll figure it out sooner or later.” Aizawa answers my unasked question.

“My quirk is very diverse and strange.” I start to explain, carefully deciding how much to share. Maybe if I focus on the flame portion, he won’t ask about my intuition yet. “To make it easier, I like to split it into two parts. My flames and my intuition. The flames can behave as natural fire, but don’t necessarily have to.” I light a small flame on the palm of my hand and offer it to him. “You can touch it. It won’t burn you.”

He rightly hesitates before extending his paw, it still looks like fire after all, it goes against common sense to actively try to touch to. But as soon as the flames glance up the side of his paw he sharply inhales and fully plunges it in. His entire body slumps in relaxation.

“This- this is incredible.” Nedzu-san gasps in awe.

I snuff out the flames to both their disappointment, not wanting to overload them. The principal would be easy enough to carry, but I have no desire to drag Aizawa-san across campus.

“That’s what you did to the principal.”

“Pretty much.” I shrug. “I mean intent matters. I was angry, so instead of that warm, relaxing feeling he probably felt he was facing down some villain. Theoretically, I could probably knock someone out if I had enough flames.”

“We’ll have to test it out.”

“On who? I don’t think someone would let me knock them out.”

“I’m sure Hizashi will offer his services the next time he barges into our apartment.” He grins conspiratorially.

“You’re a horrible person.” He just proudly laughs.

“Ignoring who your planning on knocking unconscious, can you use them more offensively?”

“I haven’t really gotten the chance to figure that out yet, there isn’t exactly anywhere I could set on fire and not worry about it.”

“Then this is the perfect time to figure it out!” He excitedly gestures to a target about twenty meters away. “Try to hit that target.”

I furrow my brows in concentration as I build up the required concentration of flames in my right hand. Taking a more stable stance I punch out and expel the flames in what resembles a fireball. They hit the target dead on with a large crash and when the smoke clears, there’s nothing left of the target.

We all blankly stare at the target, speechless at the destruction.

“Ok new rule,” Aizawa breaks the silence “You’re not allowed to use your flames on people until you can regulate them.”

“Fair enough.” I agree. I didn’t intend for it to be so destructive; my control seems to have suffered. Wanting to get a better look at the aftermath, I try to head towards the target only to have to brace myself on my knees when a wave of vertigo overcomes me.

“Are you alright?” Aizawa hauls me back up right and keeps a hand on me to prevent me from falling.

I hold my forehead; a pounding headache is starting to emerge. “I need to sit down for a minute.”

I slowly lower myself down. The only thing stopping me from outright collapsing to the ground is Aizawa’s firm grip. Some of the dizziness fades once I’m on the ground.

“I over did it.”

“You think?” Before I even notice he’s examining my hand that’s red and irritated. Kind of like a bad sunburn. “You’ve burnt yourself as well. You won’t be trying that again until you have protective gear.”

I question what they plan to use. I doubt they have flame resistant materials, but I hope they figure something out. The backlash can be hard on my hands and wrists.

“I need to train my body before any of that.”

“I’m happy you agree.” He smirks, way too happy at the notion. “I’m going to work you to the ground.”

I repress the urge to slam my face into a wall. I just signed myself up for training hell, didn’t I?


	10. Chapter 10

Izuku

Training with Aizawa and sometimes Nedzu when he gets a chance, wasn’t the worse thing in the world. They knew when to push and when to back off, but I can tell my body has progressed leaps and bounds. I mean, not as much as Reborn, but seeing how they don’t have access to dying will bullets to refine my body, they are doing a great job. I’ve managed to hold hyper mode for 5 minutes.

Aizawa is more focused on the physical side of things, while Nedzu focuses on logistics and strategy. Together, I have ended up with a very well-balanced training regimen. Though I still can’t figure out why Aizawa gave me a look of pity mixed with horror when Nedzu-san decide to take interest in me. Isn’t it a good thing?

The next year passes without much fanfare. I settle into my new school without much difficulty, making a few acquaintances, but no close friends. Tsukauchi has also been bring me more difficult cases to consult on, when he realized locating the person wasn’t the only thing I could do. Aizawa was not particularly happy with that development.

I know something is wrong when Tsukauchi is waiting with Aizawa in the living room when I get home from school.

“What’s happened.”

“Do you remember that kidnapping case I was working on?”

“The one with the kids with high profile quirks?”

“That’s the one.” Tsukauchi confirms. “We finally got a lead. They messed up with their last victim, a hidden security camera saw them. We were able to get an ID on the man.”

I glance over the folder he hands me with a profile on the man, before pointing to a location on the map they’d laid out.

“He’s in a abandoned factory on the far side of town.”

“That’s convenient for us.” Aizawa strokes his stubble. “There’s not much in terms of collateral over there.”

I catch the looks that Tsukauchi keeps giving Aizawa.

“That’s not everything. Is it?”

“No.” Aizawa pushes his bangs back only for them to fall back in his face. “We are going toned you to guide a team to secure the children before the heroes can move in. We can’t risk the kidnappers using them as hostages.”

“Why me? Wouldn’t a hero be a better option?”

“Normally yes. But they wouldn’t have your diverse skill set. Locating the children, keeping them calm, on top of your intuition and long and short range combat abilities, unfortunately you’re our best option. ”

“I understand. When do we leave?”

“Immediately. There’s a meeting with the other heroes before the operation to go over the plan.” 

“Ok just let me change.” I drop my bag on my bed and pull on a T-shirt, jeans and sweatshirt, grabbing my fire proof wrist bracers as I head back out to the living room. The bracers don’t really protect my hands from my flames, seeing as their not real fire. But, they are the best option we have at the moment and the bracers do take some of the strain off my wrists.

We pile into the police car and Tsukauchi drives us to the police station, where the meeting will be held.

“Hey, should I use my real name?” I ask just before we get out of the car.

“Do you want to?”

“I was just thinking it could become problematic later on if someone recognizes me.”

“I had you sign that internship paperwork for precisely this reason. I knew there would eventually be a case that needed your direct intervention. You won’t get in trouble for being there.”

“I’m more worried about the kidnappers.” I’d be really annoying to get on the villain’s radar this early. I would like to actually be in UA before I started making waves. But, with my track record that’s an unlikely possibility.

“If you want to use a different name that’s fine.”

“Then…call me Tsuna.” My intuition hums in response, pleased with the name I chose for some reason.

“Tsuna?”

I don’t answer, smiling nostalgically in the rear-view mirror. 

There are several heroes already waiting in the meeting room when we get there. I barely manage to stop myself from launching into fanboy mode. Endeavor, Best Jeanist, Fat Gum, and a boy I don’t recognize who must be someone’s intern. His hair is split right down the middle one-half white and the other red. His eyes are two different colors as well, grey and blue, with a red scar across the left side of his face. I wonder if his coloring has something to do with his quirk? He looks kind of young to be here though…not that I have any room to talk.

“Now that we’re all here, let’s get started. As you know, we have finally gotten lead on the kidnapping of children with high profile quirks. From that lead we were able to deduce a location. It’s believed the children are being held in an abandoned factory.” Tsukauchi-san gestures to the factory on the map.

“Where did you get this information? How accurate is it?” Best Jeanist asks.

“The last kidnapping was caught on a hidden security camera we were able to ID’d the man on the camera. As for the location…”

“That was me” Their incredulous looks all turn to me. Endeavor in particular looks like he just swallowed a bug.

“You? You’re just a kid.” He sneers. Subconsciously, I lean back into the persona I took on as a mafia boss, because if nothing else, it is very good at dealing with violent self-entitled dumbasses with ego issues.

“I won’t deny that, but for the last year I’ve been helping the police department and Erasurehead track down various villains.”

“Erasure, is this true?”

“It is. This is my intern Tsuna. I can guarantee the accuracy of his information, he’s never led us wrong.” And from him that’s high praise, most of the heroes seem to know that seeing as the don’t protest further. Though I’m kind of curious why the other boy my age isn’t getting the same treatment.

“Great, but why is he here.” Endeavor aggressively asks, not wanting to let this go for some reason, when no one else seems to have an issue with it.

“He will be guiding the group meant to secure the children with his quirk.”

“He’ll just drag us down.” He glares at me like I’ve somehow insulted his mother.

“I can defend myself just fine.”

“Oh?” He drawls, observing me with a condescending glare. And while I admit don’t look like much, it aggravates me to be so casually dismissed like this. “What’s your quirk.”

“Fire with a mental component.”

His eyes take on a hard glint when he hears this and shoves the other boy forward.

“This is my son Shouto.” Well that explains why no one questioned why he was here. The boy grimaces at the hand digging into his shoulder. “Maybe you’ll be a worthy opponent for him. He’ll be on your team.”

I watch the subtle byplay between the two, and I don’t like what I find. Shouto clearly doesn’t want to be anywhere near the man, but also makes no attempt to throw him off. That… doesn’t suggest anything good. That’s not even counting what is definitely a burn scar that takes up a good portion of his face. I clench my fists behind my back and hide my disgust behind a bright smile.

“I look forward to working with you.”

“Likewise.”

Endeavor then proceeds to ignore us in favor of continuing the meeting, with Shouto slipping back to the wall.

“Sorry.” Shouto quietly apologizes.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault he decides to behave like a five-year-old.”

I’ve clearly taken him by surprise when a choked laugh tries to escape before he manages to force it back. And he gives me the most confused look. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say something that like that.”

“Stick around.” I smile brightly. “I’m sure I can think of more.”

“Problem child.”

“Yes?”

“Get up here and give a rundown of the villains we know about.”

“Yes sir.” Pushing my self off the wall and grabbing a folder as I head to the front of the room. I start off with the basics. How they operate, roughly how many members they would need to pull off an operation and what kind of opposition they can expect, where they’re likely to keep the kids and what kind of security they’ll have around them. I move on to suspected and known members. Giving detailed analysis about them and their quirks and what the best tactic to face them would be. With the added benefit of knowing _exactly _how groups like this work, what with how many of them I destroyed as Tsuna, the analysis is far too detailed for someone as young as me should be able to put together.

The heroes have varying levels of shock and disbelief as I finish up with a recommendation for the two groups and how to best handle the aftermath.

I shift uncomfortably under their stares, before Fat Gum sums up what they’re all thinking. “What the fuck.”

They all mechanically turn to Aizawa-san, hoping for some kind of answer. Aizawa-san shrugs, way too happy to be inflicting me on other people. “Don’t look at me, he came that way, Nedzu tutoring him on occasion didn’t help matters any.”

And there’s that same expression of pity and horror again. I really don’t get what the big deal is. Sure Nedzu-san is a tough teacher, but what he really cares about his students and tailors his lessons to meet their needs.

Aizawa-san pats my shoulder shaking his head. “Don’t worry about it.”

I nod, still confused at the reactions.

“Well then, with that…” Tsukauchi-san pauses unsure how to phrase it. “Informative report, let’s move out.”


	11. Chapter 11

Shoto

No one seems sure how to react to Erasure head’s intern, a small kid with green hair called Tsuna. As the meeting goes on, he keeps springing more and more surprises on us. He’s the one that located the kidnappers. Not totally out of the realm of possibilities if he had the right quirk. Which apparently is a dual fire and mental quirk, Endeavor jumped on that, right after criticizing the kid for being weak. Probably thinking he could use his similar quirk to measure my progress or something stupid like that. It got me away from him for the mission, so I’m not going to complain. At least from the small amount of time I talked to him, he is under no illusion to what Endeavor is really like.

And then…there is the _complete information dump_ that was his report. He lost me soon after he started, and from the shocked and somewhat confused looks on the heroes faces, he’s lost some of them too. I don’t know how he intimately knows how a kidnapping ring functions, but I’ve come to the conclusion _I don’t want to._ Erasure head isn’t at all surprised at Tsuna’s report, maybe he helped? Though, from his reaction it doesn’t seem likely.

I don’t have a lot of time to think about it before we are moving out to the secondary location. Just before we split up, my father yanks me aside just out of earshot of the other heroes. He was trying to be discreet about it, but I catch Tsuna watching us intently.

“Don’t you dare embarrass me.” He tells me with the upmost seriousness.

“Yes sir”

“And keep an eye on that brat. I want a report on him after all this.”

“Yes sir.” I barely manage not to roll my eyes at him. Tsuna was right to call him a 5-year-old.

He nods to himself happy with my answer.

“Alright.” Erasure head starts once we’ve rejoined the group. “We’ll split up from here. Fatgum, myself and the two interns will enter the building first, we’ll signal you when we’ve secured the children. Any objections?”

They all shake their heads.

“Good, Tsuna.”

“Right.” He leads us unfalteringly towards the back building, only stopping behind a collapsed wall of a warehouse.

“We’ll have to move quickly once we get in.” Tsuna reports, eyes narrowing into a burning orange. “The kids are being held in the basement, there are two guards that we’ll need to take out that are guarding the back door, and another two guarding the kids. Total there is twenty adults present and 10 kids.” 

“Good, I’ll take care of the two at the door. Will anyone see us approach the building?”

“No. Not right now. I don’t see any surveillance equipment, nor do I sense anyone watching.”

“They’re either complacent or one of them has a quirk that can substitute.”

Tsuna tilts head in thought. “They’re complacent.”

“Well that works out for us.”

“Sorry,” Fatgum interrupts their conversation, “but could you explain your quirk before we start. I don’t want to go in blind.”

“Ah. I’m sorry.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I mentioned it was a dual fire and mental quirk right? The fire is self-explanatory, but the mental is a bit more complicated. I have a heightened intuition, that alerts me to threats and lies, and is very useful to locating things or people when I’m close enough. It also allows me to emit a warm calming feeling that stops people from freaking out.”

“I see. That’s quite the quirk.”

“It’s bullshit is what it is. It makes literally no sense.” Erasure head grumbles with no real heat.

“What about your quirk Shoto?” Tsuna asks with twinkling eyes.

“Half-cold, half-hot. I can make fire on my left side and ice on my right.”

“That’s so cool!” Tsuna excitedly bounces. “What kind of range and power do you have, do you have to—

“Tsuna, now’s not the time to grill the boy.”

He clears his throat and reigns himself in, a slight blush on his cheeks.

“Sorry.”

Erasure head just shakes his head. “Let’s move in.”

“We’ll be right behind you Erasure.”

“The coast is clear. There’ll be one right next to the door on the right, take that one out first. The other one is about 5 ft to the left of the door.”

“Understood.”

We make our way to the door, Erasure head slipping silently through. I can just barely hear the sound of someone choking before the door closes. Moments later, it opens again, and he beckons us through. He’s zip tied the two together and cover their mouths with duct tape.

Tsuna takes the lead without being prompted, bringing us through the twisting corridors occasionally stopping to let some one pass without seeing us. When we finally make it to the bottom of the stairwell he crouches down to peek around the corner.

“Found them.” He whispers, barely audible scooting back to allow the two heroes to assess the situation themselves.

“Stay here.” Erasure head gives us a stern look. We both nod in understanding.

The two heroes signal silently to each other before bolting out, Tsuna immediately retaking his position to watch. Curious myself, I lean over him.

They seem to have kept the kids in what looks like a large metal holding cell of some kind. Fatgum has taken positioned himself in front of it, to divert any stray attacks while Erasure head swiftly captures both guards in his capture weapon, before knocking them out with a blow to the head. He restrains them in the same manner as he had before.

“Tsuna, Shoto” He calls us over. Tsuna immediately goes to answer, before going suddenly very still. He grabs my arm and quickly pulls me away to the other side of the stairs and pushes me against the wall. He holds a finger to his mouth indicating everyone to be silent.

I hear the door at the top of the stairs open and shut, followed by someone’s footsteps as they make their way down. I watch Tsuna counting the steps, soundlessly mouthing them. Just as the guy hits the last step and rounds the corner, Tsuna blind sides him with a kick to the side which he follows up with a chokehold. Of course, because he’s so small he literally has to jump on the guy’s back and wrap his legs around his waist to even reach his neck, making the entire situation somewhat comical. But, as funny looking as it is to see this tiny kid strangle a full-grown man, the guy goes down with minimal resistance.

“Ah, that was close.” Tsuna lets go before he gets crushed as the man drops to the ground unconscious. “Can you block the entrance with ice?”

I nod, twisting my foot sending a thick wall of ice to block the stairwell. Tsuna taps it with the back of his hand and whistles in appreciation. “That’s so cool.”

Grabbing one arm, I help him drag the unconscious man towards where the others have been restrained and Tsuna whips out zip ties of his own.

“Can I borrow some duct tape?” He catches the roll Erasure head tosses him with ease, and beams. “Thanks!”

He unceremoniously slaps a strip over the guys mouth, looking way to happy about it.

“Our part is complete; I sent the signal to the others.” Fatgum informs us.

Tsuna acknowledges this and slowly approaches where the kids are being held. “Don’t worry, we’re here to save you, we’ll get you out in just a second ok?” He tells them in a soft gentle voice. I can’t hear anyone respond, but the kids look altogether terrified.

“A combination lock, huh. Hey Shoto! Can you help me out?”

I go over, noting how the kids flinch back when I get close. They seem to be in a generally state, some look a little underfed and a bit bruised. But nothing majorly worrying

“Hey, don’t be afraid, Shoto here’s super nice, he’s going to help me get the door open right?”

“Yeah. What do you need me to do?”

“I’ll rapidly heat it up, then I need you to make the shackle as cold as you can, then and pull as hard as you can, it should break.”

“Why not just melt it?”

“We risk fusing the door if we do that, it likely has a lower melting point than the lock.”

“Alright.”

Tsuna creates a small flame on the index finger, and holds it to the metal, causing it to become a glowing orange color. He moves his hand away and I concentrate the cold into the metal, the hissing steam coming off, as it rapidly freezes. Deeming it safe to handle when the steam stops, I give the lock one firm tug and the shackle snaps, just like Tsuna said it would.

The door creaks open with nothing holding it back. Tsuna crouches at the entrance. The kids are still wary of us, but not nearly as much as before. Fatgum, tries to approach, only to stop when they all huddle together and try to become one with the back of the cage.

“My name is Tsuna.” He redirects their attention to himself; I can physically see the tension leave their bodies as Tsuna talks to them. “You know Shoto. That’s the Pro-Hero Fatgum and Erasure head. We came to save you. Best Jeanist and Endeavor are also here to make sure they never hurt you again. ”

He slowly shifts forward, telegraphing his every movement. “You all were super brave, you know that? You just need to be brave a little while longer and we’ll all get to go home.”

“Really?” One of the kids asks, tears pooling in his eyes.

“Really.” That seems to have released the gate, because the next moment Tsuna is tackled by hysterically crying children. He lets them do as they please, and just keep talking in that same soothing tone.

“I know, how about a story?” Without waiting for a response, he launches into a story about a lonely prince and a dragon. Slowly but surely, the children are enraptured by his voice, forgetting all about their situation. They don’t even notice the distant sounds of fighting, Tsuna getting really into as well, giving different voices to all the characters, and wildly gesturing with his hands.

“It’s amazing isn’t it?” Erasure head slides up next to me watching Tsuna with a fond expression. “Looking at them now you would have never known a few minutes ago they were completely terrified.”

He’s right. Tsuna has this air about him that draws people to him. I hadn’t noticed it before he had pointed it out. But know, I can see that everyone involved in this mission, bar my father who’s too self-absorbed to notice, has been affected by his pull. Myself included.

Somehow, I don’t find this to be off putting, rather it’s kind of nice. Because even with out it, Tsuna is a genuinely kind person that I wouldn’t mind seeing again.

The sounds of battle wrap up just as Tsuna finishes the story. They are so caught up pestering him for another, they don’t notice the ice barrier melting and the other group joining us.

“How’d things go on your end?” Fatgum asks.

“No problem. The information was very helpful.” Best Jeanist responds.

“Like those thugs stood a chance.” Endeavor scoffs.

“What about the kids?” Best Jeanist ignores his outburst.

“Tsuna’s got them in hand. None are severely injured thankfully.”

“Let’s get them out of here then.”

It takes longer than expected, mainly due to Endeavor making it so much harder than it needed to be when he made the children cry the second he spoke to them. Then carried on about how it wasn’t his fault it took so long for Tsuna to calm them down again. The others looked like they just wanted to strangle him, not that I don’t feel the same. But we finally manage to get them out of the building and to the waiting ambulances.

The mission finally wraps up, barring our reports that will be submitted later. All in all, this mission was a success.

“Here.” Erasure head hands me a piece of paper with a phone number on it, while my father is distracted. “It’s Tsuna’s number. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around pretty often.”

“Why?”

“Ah well…he’s got that look on his face again.” He turns and waves half heartedly over his shoulder, collecting a struggling Tsuna along the way.

I stare after his retreating back in confusion. I don’t understand what look he’s talking about. I glance down at the number in my hand before tucking it in my back pocket.

A slight smile appears on my face. I may not get it, but I’m looking forward to seeing him again.

“Shoto!” Endeavor calls, effectively destroying my good mood.

He really ruins everything doesn’t he?


	12. Chapter 12

**Izuku**

“Tsu-kun~” As I make my way home from school, a few days after the mission I hear a voice call out from behind me. I turn, only to be met with a very familiar face. One I didn’t think I’d ever see again.

“Byakuran?” He looks just like I remember him. White hair, lilac eyes, an upside-down crown on his cheek, and that same infuriating I’m up to no good smirk. But it’s his flames that really get to me. After over a year of nothing, it’s so relieving to finally feel someone else’s flames. Even if it is just Byakuran. We let our flames intermingle, the elation from both sides clear as our form bond slips back into place like it never left. Soothing some of the ache from the broken bonds. It’s not enough, not in the least, but it’s more than I thought I’d ever have in this world.

“That’s right. Maa~” He slings an arm around my shoulder. “When I caught a rumor about a Tsuna taking part in a raid on a kidnapping ring I just knew it had to you.”

“How?” As soon as I ask, I want to bang my head against a wall for asking such a stupid question, it’s Byakuran, of course he knows.

“Ah well, perhaps we should relocate.” He suggests. “There’s a café down the street that has delicious cakes.”

“Ok” I agree, knowing the best way to get him to explain is to just go along with his whims. I send a text to Aizawa-san to let him know I’ll be late so he doesn’t send out a search party. The café he brings us to is a quaint little place I haven’t been to before.. He orders a chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting and I order myself a coffee.

“So,” He says around the fork. “I’m sure you have questions.”

“And I’m sure you have answers.”

“Mm~ I guess I’ll start with… how did you get here.” He points at me with his fork, smile slipping into a more serious expression. “You died. And the me of your world did not take kindly to that. You were his favorite toy; he couldn’t just let it end like that. So, he messed around a bit and it somehow ended with your memories being in that body. No idea how, we weren’t even sure where’d you end up.”

“I…see.” I really shouldn’t be surprised with that level of carelessness, all of my friends were like that. Once something went down, rational thought was dropkicked out a window and mass amounts of property damage and bodily harm was dealt out without any sort of constraint. I swear, I was the majority of their impulse control, and without me there to reign them in, well, getting flung into an alternate reality wouldn’t be the strangest thing that’s happened.

“You don’t remember dying, do you?”

“No.” I shift uncomfortably. “I had considered the possibility though.” We lapse into an uncomfortable silence, neither of us sure where to go from there.

“Enough of that.” His smile returns, thankfully changing the topic. “I brought you a gift.”

He tosses a pair of plain black gloves on the table.

“Are these…” I turn them over in my hands, feeling the material. They look like the ones I used later on in my life. After I managed to convince Reborn mittens didn’t scream mafia boss.

“Flame proof gloves? Why yes they are.”

“Well that solves that problem. Recovery girl keeps threatening me because I see her so often for burns. Thank you.”

“Well, I certainly can’t let you die again because you didn’t have the proper gear. You’re way too interesting to watch.”

I shake my head, same old Byakuran. “What have you been up to?”

“Oh, you know.” He replies flippantly. “This and that, I’m not planning to take over the world again if that’s what your worried about. That got boring after the first dozen times.”

“I wasn’t worried, just curious. I doubt you became a hero, there’s too many rules, and villain doesn’t really fit either.”

“I don’t really care what you call me.” He shrugs, smirk widening. “I just want to watch interesting.”

“Just don’t do anything stupid. Or, at least don’t get caught.” I correct myself, knowing that he’s definitely doing something illegal.

“Of course, who do you take me for?” He smiles innocently at me.

I give him a look that shows exactly what I think about that, I remember the shit he’s gotten up to, I’ve had to clean up a fair portion of it after all.

“What about you Tsu-kun? Will you become a hero, or maybe become a vigilante again.”

“Please, being a vigilante the first time around was more than enough for me. And why are those my only two options?”

“Because you’re a trouble magnet.” He cheerfully informs me. “You’d never make it as a civilian, you can’t help but get involved when someone’s in trouble.”

“You’re not wrong.” I sigh pinching my brow. It’s really irritating I can’t deny that.

“I think you’d make a super interesting villain, but, you’re too much of a goody two shoes.”

“Why can’t I just have a nice normal life?” I complain, burying my face in my hands.

“Hahaha, that’s a good one.” He slaps the table as he bends over laughing. “You really think one of the three great skies could lead a normal life. That’s hilarious. You were always the best at faking it, but even you have to admit, we are about as far from normal as you can get.”

“That’s….wait,” if both of us are here… my thoughts suddenly shift at the realization, “what about Yuni?”

“Hmmm, I’m not sure where they are at the moment.” He tilts his head in consideration. “I have a few ideas on who it is, but it’s difficult to be sure since the arcobaleno are obsolete in this world.”

“Obsolete?”

“Mn. I spread the cure around various worlds. I’d get angry if my favorite toys were taken away by that stupid curse.”

“That’s a relief. Would Yuni even be considered a great sky then?”

“Well they’d still carry the blood line. You know how much Kawahira values Sephira’s line. Though, I think you are misunderstanding something, the arcobaleno sky, it won’t be Yuni. I’m a constant in all worlds. You’re an irregularity caused by the me of your world’s meddling. She won’t remember either of us.”

“I see.” Disappointment surges through me, I wanted to see her again. Meeting Byakuran here had unknowingly gotten my hopes up. But Byakuran pretty much confirmed my worst fear. I’ll never see any of my friends again. I clench the area above my heart trying to will the pain away. It’s a futile effort of course.

“Don’t make that face Tsu-kun~” Byakuran’s sickly sweet tone interrupts my pity party and sends shivers down my spine. “You’ll always have me.”

…Is it to late to pretend I don’t know him?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shoto decides to be selfish. Izuku is more than happy to assist.

Shoto

I pullout the number Erasure head gave me from where I hid it in my drawer, it’s not the first time I’ve considered texting Tsuna. But I keep making up excuses not to. I think the biggest hang up is… how my father will react. He seemed really interested in him at first, but when he found out he didn’t use fire outside of heating a lock, he lost all interest. I could probably play it of as training, he does have hand to hand skills that I could benefit from. My father’s not much help there since his approach to combat is basically beat it into submission. I’m just not built to do that. My lips tug down in a frown, that’s not what I want.

For once, I don’t want it to be about training. About my father’s ridiculous goal for me to surpass All Might. The guy will might retire before I even become a pro, he must be in his fifties by now. And for a hero, that’s old. And once he does, what will I be left with? A goal that’s no longer attainable and nothing else.

I just… I don’t know. I sigh in frustration. I don’t know what I want out of this. I’ve never had an opportunity like this. I may not understand what I want, but instinctively, I know I can’t let this moment pass me by. Just this _once_. I tell myself. _Just this one time_. I’m going to be selfish and do what _I _want. Steeling my nerves, I pull out my phone a send a message.

_‘Hey, this is Shoto we met a few days ago, Erasure head gave me your number.’ _The message isn’t much. But to my surprise, he responds seconds later.

‘_I’m happy he did. I was trying to figure out how to get in touch with you.’_

_ ‘How were you planning on doing that?’_

_ ‘… I’d rather not say.’_

_ ‘Now I’m curious.’_

_ ‘…It was between ‘borrowing’ the police database, or just breaking into your house.’_

I choke back an incredulous laugh, ‘_seriously?’_

_ ‘I never said I had a good plan.’_

_ ‘Your kind of strange Tsuna.’_

‘_In a good way, right? Oh! And my names Midoriya Izuku, Tsuna’s an alias.’ _

_‘Whatever you say Midoriya. My full name’s Todoroki Shoto.’_

_ ‘Then, Todoroki-kun?’_

I pause, considering for a moment. I recall how he called my given name during the mission, the warm feeling that came with it. He was acknowledging me, not my father, who he clearly felt nothing but disdain for, but just me. It was…nice. For someone outside my family to call me ‘Shoto’ with none of the expectations attached.

_‘Shoto’s fine.’_ I finally decide.

_‘If you’re ok with that. You can call me Izuku.’_

_ ‘Do you want to meet somewhere?’_

_ ‘Sure! Any idea what you want to do?’_

_ ‘I don’t know. I’ve never had any friends.’ _I admit.

‘…_You’re seriously tempting me to kidnap you.’_

_ ‘Please don’t’ _The sad thing is I can’t tell if he’s joking or not.

‘_When are you free, I think of something for us to do.’_

_ ‘It’ll be hard to get away, I train with my father pretty much every day. I don’t have a lot of free time. And I doubt he’ll just let me go out to just hang out.’_

_ ‘I’ve decided. Tomorrow, after school I am showing up to your house. We’ll train. Make the five-year-old think that us training together is a great idea. Then when the next time comes around, I’ll make up some bullshit excuse and we’ll go get ice cream or something.’_

_ ‘You’re going to keep calling him that?’ _I chuckle.

_ ‘I’ll stop when he stops.’_

_ ‘So… never.’_

_ ‘¯\\_(_ _ツ)_/¯ ‘_

We talk a little bit longer, polishing his plan a bit more before we stop for the night. I smile to myself. For the first time, things are finally starting to look up.

True to his word, Izuku shows up at my front door the next afternoon. Unfortunately, it’s my father that answered the door.

“What are you doing here.” He sneers.

“I wanted to train with Shoto. I’m pretty good at hand to hand but my fire needs some work.” He lies through his teeth with an earnest expression. What he did with that lock, concentrating a tiny flame that hot requires a level of control I don’t have, and I doubt my father does either.

“How did you know where we live?”

“The internet.” He tilts his head, making him look like the picture of innocence. If this works, I can’t wait to watch him talk circles around my father this is highly entertaining to watch. “You can find anything there if you know where to look.”

“Tch.” He folds his arms giving Izuku an assessing glare. “We’ll see if you’re a decent steppingstone.”

Ignoring the jab, Tsuna beams brightly. “Thank you! You won’t regret it.”

He brings us to the dojo completely unaware he’s already caught in Izuku’s trap. We take up positions’ opposite to each other. The first part has gone perfectly. Now, to appeal to my father’s ambitions.

“What are the rules?” Izuku asks, pulling on a pair of plain black gloves.

“Quirks and hand to hand are allowed. No permanent injuries. The match is over when I say it is, or someone’s unable to continue.” He looks down mockingly at Izuku, making it obvious who he thinks it’ll be. But he’s also not the one who saw him take down a full grown man with a choke hold

“Understood.” He ignores the look and goes about stretching his arms, before sliding into a solid ready position.

“Begin!’

Izuku literally launches himself forward at me with surprising speed. I send a wall of ice at him to try to stop him, but he flips over that with ease with a quick burst of fire from his hands and uses it as a springboard. I barely manage to get out of the way when his foot collides with the floor with a heavy thud, actually leaving a shallow indent in the wood floor. I break out in a cold sweat. I really don’t want to get hit by that.

Izuku keeps me on the defensive, fire, ice, no matter what I throw at him, he’s always one step ahead. He doesn’t even have to be looking at me to know what I’m going to do. The mental part of his quirk is clearly at play here, but I’m not sure how. All I know, is that fighting Izuku, _is a pain in the ass._

I finally make a fatal mistake, some of the ice I had used earlier hadn’t melted. I lost my balance for just _a second._ But that was all that was needed. Izuku slips around to my back and puts me in the same choke hold I saw before. I try to fight back, the arm at my throat isn’t really cutting anything off, but a sudden wave of warmth comes over me. I slump back in his grip stunned. All the adrenaline disappears into a calm peacefulness, this is nice. I don’t want to fight any more. I just want to enjoy this forever.

I let myself be lowered to the ground without complaint, the arm around my throat disappearing at some point in the process. I’m left disappointed when the feeling fades.

“You good?” Izuku asks crouching in front of me

I blink at him “What was that?”

“Part of my quirk. My flames can emit a sort of calming property that discourages discord, and if emitted strongly enough can knock people out. I didn’t really want to do that, so I made you lose the will to fight.”

“That was…an interesting experience.” I take a cursory glance to my father who looks like a hilarious mixture between constipated and angry.

“I suppose you’ll do. I’ll allow you to continue training with my son.” He announces highhandedly, like Izuku’s been granted son great honor.

“Thank you!” He bows, and I barely catch the self-satisfied smirk he’s got on his face. It’s gone when he straightens.

“Now get out of here.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow Shoto!” He flees the house before my father can correct him.

“How dare you embarrass me like that.” He growls yanking me up by the collar of my shirt, his fiery beard flaming with his anger.

“I’m sorry.” I knew, there’d be consequences, I didn’t tell Izuku that. I just didn’t care. If I have to endure a little pain for my selfishness, I couldn’t care less. I’d get hurt either way, might as well be for something _I_ want for once.

He scoffs, roughly shoving me to the ground. “I expect better next time.”

“I understand.” He gives me one last glare and stalks out of the dojo slamming the door behind him.

I glare at the closed door. That little spark of defiance Izuku unknowingly reignited after it had nearly been snuffed out, burns just a bit brighter. 


	14. Chapter 14

Aizawa

“You seem really happy with yourself.” I casually mention at Izuku’s dopey smile as he scribbles into one of his notebooks. He hasn’t stopped smiling since he got home an hour ago. “Something good happen?”

“You could say that.” He responds, still focused on his project.

“Are you going to tell me or make me sit here and guess?”

“No no, I tell you” He looks up at me laughing, eyes squinting in amusement. “I met up with Shoto today.”

“Oh?” So that kid finally texted him? About time, Izuku was about to take matters into his own hands. “Does Endeavor know?”

“He does. He answered the door.” His smiles widely showing too many teeth. “I made myself a valuable taring partner.”

I eye him skeptically, “That’s all you’re planning?”

“Well, if we get sidetracked on a run or something, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.” He shrugs innocently with a what can you do about it air.

“Don’t mess with him too much.” I sigh “He’s still the number two hero.”

“I know when to stop.” He mumbles under his breath. “But he doesn’t deserve that title.”

“Perhaps.”

“Does no one question his behavior? Or that no one even sees his wife or kids? Or question where that burn scar on Shoto’s face came from? And don’t tell me it’s from his quirk backfiring, it’s on the wrong side for that to be true. _Someone_ did that to him.”

“The public generally tends to think that his family stays out of public to protect them, so I doubt they’ve even seen Shoto. As for his behavior, I won’t deny he’s an ass and annoying to work with, but in this day and age, might makes right. He has the highest rate of solved cases; he goes after the toughest villains. He’s not someone you can casually accuse of what you’re implying.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

“No. There’s definitely something going on. But this isn’t something I can get involved in.”

“He’s going to crash and burn one of these days.” He tells me with absolute certainty, eyes flashing orange. The casual statement now a more threatening premonition. “I just hope he doesn’t drag everyone around him down with him.”

A frown tugs at my lips, as Izuku heads to his room in a sour mood. Izuku’s intuition can be a very scary thing. Sometimes, it’s almost like he’s looking into the future. So, if he says Endeavor is going to fall, I’m apt to believe him. In which case we need to start setting up contingency plans now. Because otherwise, it will be catastrophic.

Pulling out my phone, I call the one person who could possibly handle this level of fall out.

“Nedzu, Are you at the school right now? There’s something I’d like to discuss.”

* * *

“Ah, Aizawa what was so important it couldn’t wait till tomorrow?” The principal asks slightly irritated about being called back to school.

“Izuku gave me a rather worrying premonition today. About Endeavor.” The irritation wipes clean from his face, now intently listening. “He said, he was going to crash and burn one of these days. And hopes he won’t bring everyone down with him.”

“I see. That is worrying, very worrying indeed.” He paces back and forth across the table. “What led up to this?”

“Izuku apparently tricked the man into letting him be friends with his son. Of course, this led to questions no one really wants to know the answer to.”

“About his family I presume.”

“And his behavior in general, yes. He suspects something is going on behind closed doors.”

“And it’s just not in his nature to leave it alone.”

“I don’t call him a problem child for nothing.”

“No, he certainly strives to live up to your expectations.”

“What he does is actively try to surpass them. Every time I raise them, he goes and does something I’d never expect.” I shake my head in defeat. “Which reminds me. Were you the one who taught him about kidnapping rings? He scared the shit out of some of the heroes he worked with on that last mission with how far-reaching his knowledge was. Hell, there were things I didn’t know. And I’ve been dealing with these rings for _years_.”

“I gave him some basic information, nothing like what your describing though.”

“That begs the question, where did he learn it then?”

“His intuition maybe?”

“No. It was more like… experience.”

It’s not the first time Izuku’s pulled information out of nowhere. Hell, it’s not even weird for him to just know things at this point.

“Do you think he could be involved with something?”

“I doubt it. Izuku’s not that kind of person.”

“True.” He concedes. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep a close eye on him. His morals have always been a bit skewed.”

I wince. There are times I genuinely think Izuku just doesn’t understand other people. Which is ironic considering his quirk. It doesn’t happen often, but he’ll get this confused look on his face when someone does something outside of his expectations. He’s so used to people being one dimensional that surprises will briefly through him for a loop. 

Then there’s that other look. It’s far rarer, but much more alarming. His face goes cold, like his normal cheerful awkward persona is just a mask he can rip away at will. When he’s like that he moves and acts like a predator. Like he knows he can take everyone in the room and walk away from it. Honestly, it’s downright terrifying. Thankfully, I’ve only seen it once when I was ambushed on patrol and ended up in the hospital for a few days. Once he got past the relief, he helped the police track the guy down with an ice-cold expression. He was caught before I even left the hospital.

“Yeah” I agree. He’s a good kid, I know that. He’ll just need some help staying that way. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”


	15. Chapter 15

Shoto

Every time Izuku shows up at my house is more entertaining than the last. My personal favorite is when he decided we were going on a run.

“I thought we would on a run today.”

“And what purpose would that serve.” My father asks in that condescending tone of his.

“Well, Shoto is obviously a speed-based fighter based on his frame. He’s never going to be the strongest physically. That just means he’s going to have to outmaneuver and out speed his opponents. Of course, that’s pointless if he can’t outlast them as well. Hence, the running. Besides it’d be nice to have a partner, no one else can keep up with me.” He shrugs, insulting Endeavor’s teaching methods and then stroking his competitive side.

“He can just overwhelm his opponent with his quirk.”

“Yeah, I guess? But he won’t always be able to rely on it. If used inside, the rapid heating and cooling would cause structural damage. Not to mention using fire inside a flammable structure is rather stupid. The first time I did it Erasurehead was about ready to throttle me.”

“That just means he needs to train his control more.”

“We are talking about actual fire, right? You can’t control fire. You can nudge it, direct it, suggest where it goes, but to actually control it? It’s just not possible.”

I seriously thought the man would have an aneurysm with the way his face scrunched up. But Izuku wasn’t done yet, he wasn’t even paying ay attention to us anymore going into that weird trance like state he does when he’s analyzing quirks.

“We don’t really have experience working in groups. That means we are a liability, especially if we start throwing around big moves without thinking. If we can supplement martial arts with our quirks, we would be much more versatile and limit the danger we put our allies and civilians in. By doing this he would be able to use his ice indoors without damaging the structure or becoming a hindrance. I wonder if these smaller applications would reduce the backlash. I probably would, it’s only after Shoto really exerts himself with one particular side that it takes effect. That also means he would be able to fight longer since he’s not expending as much energy. He could also catch people by surprise since normally his quirk doesn’t require him to move much. They wouldn’t expect him to suddenly throw himself into a fist fight.”

Even not really paying attention Izuku still manages to subtly diss my father for everything he does wrong. Property damage. Being a hazard to other people in general and automatically using an unnecessary force to subdue his opponent. Being called out on his actions by a kid is just perfect. His beard is flaring up in agitation, and I can hear him grinding his teeth together from here.

But, when it comes down to it, everything Izuku said was perfectly valid. No matter how perfect Endevour likes to think my quirk is, it has its faults. Just like every other quirk. Because no quirk is _perfect. _

It gives me some sort of twisted pleasure to know he failed in creating the perfect quirk. It’s freeing in a way.

“So…” Izuku awkwardly trails off from his rant, rubbing the back of his neck with a slight blush. Embarrassed that he got a little to into it. “That run?”

My father gives a low growl before going back into the house slamming the door behind him.

“Did I go to far?” He asks.

“No.” I assure him.

“Are you sure? I didn’t mean to launch into a full-on analysis.”

“I’m sure. That was perfect.”

“Ok then.”

That was the last time my father answered the door. After that he seemed to be a bit more agreeable to my training with Izuku. The fact I’ve made noticeable improvement when I had plateaued earlier didn’t hurt my case either.

I love going on runs with him. There the best part of my day, he’d always drag me around to parts of town I’ve never been to before and make me try a bunch of different food. I still remember that horrified expression he made when I told him I never had sweets. It was great.

The best thing out of all of this though was Izuku. I don’t know what I did to deserve a guy like him. Sending that text was the best thing I’ve ever done.

Things are finally starting to look up.

* * *

“Tsu-kun!~”A man with white hair and lavender eyes drapes his arm over Izuku’s shoulders. We were taking a break from our run and had got ice cream.

“Oh,” He glances at me just now seeming to notice me. “Is he one of yours?”

“Not like that.” He roughly shrugs him off. I stare at him, utterly confused at what they’re talking about.

“That’s a shame.”

“Why are you here Byakuran?” Izuku narrows his eyes at the man.

“Your so mean to me Tsu-kun.” The man whines “Can’t I just come visit you?”

“Without something imploding? No.” Izuku deadpans.

“Who is this Izuku?”

“He’s Byakuran. A giant pain in my ass.” He scowls. “His best friend.” Byakuran says at same time.

“Right…” I glance between Izuku’s scowl and Byakura’s smiling face, unclear who to believe.

“What are you doing?”

“Officially? Training.” Tsuna take a large bite of the cone.

“And unofficially?” He asks.

“I kidnapped him so we could go get ice cream.”

“Stop calling it that.” I whine. “Someone’s going to believe you.”

“I wouldn’t have to if the 5-year-old got his head out of his ass.”

“The 5-year-old?”

“Endeavor.” I sigh in exasperation. “My father.”

“Haha.” Byakuran’s eyes twinkle with amusement. “You really are the most interesting Tsu-kun!” He breaks out laughing. “This game seems fun. You’ll let me play too right?”

“If Endeavor suddenly finds himself inconvenienced, I won’t complain.”

A feral grin spreads across his face, reveling in the coming chaos.

“You’re the best.” he quickly hugs Izuku lifting him off his feet, and drops him before he can retaliate. Byakuran runs off laughing.

“Leave his family out of it.” Izuku warns his retreating back. “And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

“That’s not a long list!” He laughs turning the corner with a cheeky wave.

“Are you sure that’s ok?” I ask worriedly.

“Hm? Oh yeah, he’ll be fine. Byakuran’s the kind of guy who would happily toast marshmallows on Endeavor’s beard.” He pauses at the thought. “Actually, I would pay good money to see that, I’ll have to mention it to him.”

“You really scare me sometimes Izuku.”

“What, even you have to admit that be hilarious.”

My lip quirks upwards “Just a little.”

“Keep an eye on the news, there’s no telling what that man will come up with. One thing’s for sure though, there’ll be no ignoring it.”

“You’re friends with some very interesting people.”

“Tell me about it.” He gives a defeated sigh.

“Though I have to ask. Why does he call you Tsu-kun?”

“Because he enjoys being difficult.”

I politely listen to him rant about how his friend irks him to no end. Izuku may be eternally frustrated by Byakuran, but I can hear the fondness in his voice as well. The rant morphs into how I’m his only normal friend, and how I can’t just leave him to fend for himself amongst the weirdo’s he attracts.

I laugh. I can’t help it, even when Izuku indignantly whines. “It’s not funny Shoto! I’m serious! Do you even know what happens when I leave Byakuran to his own devices for too long?!”

I’m not entirely sure what this warm feeling that’s filling my chest, but I think it’s happiness. I toss the finished ice cream into the garbage and take off running while I’m still laughing.

“Shoto!” Izuku calls out from behind me. I cast a quick look back to see him running after me. He quickly catches up and starts to prod me with his elbows. “Why’d you do that.”

He squawks when I push his head down, nearly tripping him and I take off again. Our game of tag continues until we both collapse next to each other exhausted on the bank of a river.

“You know?” Izuku comments. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh.”

“Probably.”

“Was it worth it?” He asks cryptically, rolling over to his side to look at me. But I know what he’s talking about.

“Yeah.” I tilt my head to meet his gaze. “I don’t regret a thing.”

That small smile he gives me was probably the most beautiful thing I’ll ever experience.


	16. Chapter 16

Izuku

“They aren’t handling the situation very well.” Shoto comments from beside me.

“Their quirks aren’t compatible, but that’s not an excuse.” It was on one of our daily ‘runs’ that my intuition led us to a crowd of people watching a few heroes fighting a villain that looks like a sentient blob of sludge. To make matters worse, the villain has a hostage.

“LET GO OF ME YOU FUCKER!” And because the world is definitely conspiring against me, the hostage is _Bakugou _of all people. Who hasn’t stopped screaming obscenities the entire time, and is likely trying to explode the villain from the inside if the violently bursting bubbles where his hands would be is any indication.

It’s funny, in an ironic sort of way. Before I remembered, Bakugou always seemed so invincible. Even when he picked fights with the older kids, he won more often than not. So, it’s a little jarring to see him reduced to a victim, I guess this proves he just a kid with no real experience.

The sludge rises up to cover his mouth and nose, cutting off the start of his next tirade mid scream. Bakugou struggles harder, his face turning red with exertion and oxygen deprivation. And the heroes are still doing a whole lot of nothing.

“He going to suffocate by the time they actually get their act together.” I whine.

“Are you…?” It’s not the first time we’ve run into trouble while we were out. Shoto is both resigned and amused at my ability to attract trouble.

“Yeah” I complain, not wanting to get caught up with this. “He’ll likely die if I don’t.”

I build up my flames and release them on the villain and Bakugou. The effect is pretty much instantaneous. They both slump to the ground, the sludge falls off Bakugou to form a puddle underneath him. The heroes quickly get Bakugou, who is currently occupied hacking up sludge, which _ewww,_ out of the way and to a paramedic while they argue about the best way to contain the villain.

“Let’s get out of here.” Before the heroes notice something, or worse Bakugou does. We head back to a bench we passed on our way. I collapse back on to it and let my head rest against the back.

“You ok?” He asks sitting next to me.

“Yeah, just a little tired. I got called out last night to help with a situation, I’m running on like 3 hours of sleep. Why people think kidnapping is a good idea is beyond me.”

“You didn’t have to come.” I tilt my head to look at him, he’s got a vaguely guilty expression.

“Don’t be stupid.” I huff lightly whack his arm, “I wanted to.”

And that small smile he gives me is totally worth the exhaustion.

“Just don’t overdo it.”

“I’ll be careful.” I assure him, when my intuition alerts me to someone approaching us.

“You handled the situation well.” The man comments. Shoto startles slightly beside me, and I narrow my eyes in thought. He knows I did something.

“Well, Bakugou may be an unbearable asshole, but he doesn’t deserve to die. He would have suffocated if the heroes kept twiddling their thumbs.”

I pull myself up. And wow does this guy looks rough. He’s really tall, but so thin it looks unhealthy and it isn’t helped by the fact he wears clothes that are latterly hanging off of him. His hair is a scraggily blond that sticks up like bad bed hair. All in all, he looks like he’s about to keel over from a gust of wind.

“You knew the hostage?” He asks.

My face pulls into a grimace. “You could say that he’s my five-year-old.”

I cast a quick side glance at Shoto, who pulls a similar face. The man is obviously confused by my response but doesn’t push.

“How’d you notice it was me anyways?”

“Your eyes change colors when you used your quirk. And while I’ll commend you for acting, you should leave it to the pros in the future. You could get into real trouble if someone saw you.” In other words, he’s not going to do anything.

“Thank you for your concern, I’m sorry, what’s your name?”

“Yagi Toshinori. I’m All Might’s secretary.” That’s a lie but seeing as he doesn’t have any ill intentions towards us, I won’t call him on it.

“I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

“Todoroki Shoto.” Yagi-san eyes widen with recognition.

“Your one of Endeavors kids.”

Shoto scowls, as always unhappy about being called out on his relationship with Endeavor.

“Wait kids?! As in plurar? I didn’t know you had siblings!” I fake surprise, saving him from having to respond. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Most of them have moved out, and Fuyumi isn’t home when you come over.” He gives me a grateful look.

I hum, “Introduce me to them?”

“Eventually.”

“Anyways,” I turn my attention back to Yagi-san. “Thanks for looking out for us, but we both have a temporary provisional license.”

“Already? Aren’t you both a little young for that?”

“Yeah, Shoto helps his father on patrol, and I help out the police department with Erasurehead due to the nature of my quirk.”

“That’s quite impressive. I take it you’ll both be attending a hero school?”

“I’m taking the recommended student exam for UA this coming school year. What about you Izuku?”

“I’m going to UA as well; I don’t know what exam I’ll be taking though.” If I’ll even be taking one at all, I’m too dangerous to leave alone so whatever they decide will just be a formality. “I guess it depends on how spiteful Erasurehead’s feeling.”

“Spiteful” Yagi-san asks bewildered.

“Yeah, he keeps on going on about inflicting me on the general masses.”

Shoto sagely nods “You are _really_ annoying to fight.”

“I take offense to that.” I pout, I’m not that bad.

“But it’s true? I can barely keep up with you, and I’ve been training for years”

Yagi-san laughs, breaking off the coming argument. “I’m sure you two will become great heroes, I’m looking forward to see you at the sport festival.”

I beam at him. “Thanks!”

“Well, I’ve got to get going. Be more careful in the future.”

“We will.” He waves as he walks off.

“That was odd.” Shoto comments once Yagi-san was out of sight.

“He was nice though.”

“Yeah… Hey Izuku I’ve been thinking.”

“About what?”

“I don’t want to use my fire at UA.”

I take a deep breath. “Why?”

“I don’t want to give him the satisfaction, I want to prove that I can be a hero even without his quirk.” I close my eyes in thought. I really want to punch something right now. Preferably Endeavor.

“You’re an idiot.” I mumble. “I’m sorry if this offends you, but I have to ask. Do _you_ even want to be a hero?”

“Of course, I do!”

“I had to make sure it wasn’t your father pushing you into it.” I sigh. Now, how to convince him that crippling himself isn’t the best way to get back at his asshole of a father.

“What about you?”

I give a weak laugh. “No. I don’t really want to be a hero.”

He gives me a shocked look.

“Is it really that surprising? I’m selfish. Between some stranger and someone I cared about; I’d abandon the stranger every time. And even I can admit my morals are pretty skewed. That’s part of the reason Eraserhead keeps such a close eye on me.” I shake my head and give him a wry smile. “I’m not a hero Shoto.”

“You’re the idiot.” He tells me, his hands clutched white. This is probably the most emotive I’ve seen him. “You can’t walk away from some one in trouble. You stood up to my father! No one else even noticed what was going on or didn’t do anything if they did. You literally showed up on my house and strong armed that asshole into letting you be my friend! Hell, you just save someone you _don’t even like!_” He’s yelling at me now, eyes glistening. “If that’s not a hero, then I don’t know what is.”

He scrubs his face, leaving me astonished.

“Then I guess we’re both idiots.” I say after he’s gotten control of himself.

“You’re the bigger idiot.”

“Sure, sure.” I agree, not looking for another fight. “You know? I kind of hate my quirk too. It only awakened last year.”

“That’s really late.”

“Isn’t it? Anyways, I was quirkless for 12 years, the only memory of my father I have is him abandoning my mother and I when I was diagnosed. My mother became a stranger, and my best friend started tormenting me. And I still wanted nothing more than to be a hero.” I sigh. “People laughed when I told them that. They told me I’d never amount to anything. Over the years the bullying got worse,” I pushed up my sleeve, he gasps at the sight of all the scars.

“I tried to hide all the injuries at first, before I realized that no one cared. They knew what was happening, they just didn’t care enough to do anything about it. And then my quirk activated when I got held hostage. I was so excited at first, I could finally be a hero people would stop treating me worse than dirt. I naively thought having a quirk would make everything better.” A bitter laugh escapes me.

“It didn’t. The first thing my mother told me when I woke up in the hospital was ‘now that you have a quirk, you won’t be useless anymore.’ She wasn’t worried about me at all.”

“It was then I realized having a quirk changed nothing. It didn’t change the years of neglect and abuse. Or the fact that everyone had just let it happen. It left me bitter, so I hid my quirk. Let her think it was a mistake. And everything went back to the way it was before. I ran into Erasurehead several times soon after. He noticed something wasn’t right and stepped in. I was placed in his custody; the school was investigated, and the main offender of the bullying was punished.”

“So yeah, I kind of hate my quirk.” Even as Tsuna, I couldn’t help but hate my flames. “But, they also led me to meeting Aizawa-san and you, so I don’t consider it all bad.”

“I don’t understand what your trying to tell me.” He scrunches his eyebrows together.

“I mean, it’s ok to hate your quirk. Just don’t forget the good things that came with it.”

“I can’t think of any.”

“Without your fire, I wouldn’t have been able to convince Endeavor so easily. I mean, I still would have done it, it just would have been a lot harder.”

“I guess.” He responds drearily.

“Haa…” I shake my head in defeat, I’m not going to get anywhere with him like this. “It’s your quirk Shoto. I won’t tell you what to do with it, just think about it some more before you go and do something as drastic as crippling yourself.”

“My quirk?” He mumbles under his breath.

“Of course.” I glance at him incredulously, “Who’s else would it be?”

He sits there intensely staring at the ground in deep thought.

“Hey Izuku?”

“Hmm?”

“We’re both idiots.” I drop my shoulders in relief.

“Ha, yeah. Yeah we are.”

“You’re still the bigger idiot.” He mocks playfully.

“I will hit you.” I half heartedly threaten.


	17. Chapter 17

Shoto

The day of the recommendation exam came soon enough. I tuned out my father’s requisite posturing and just barely manage to suppress an eye roll when he tells me "don't you dare embarrass me" for the umpteenth time.

The testing center has several students milling around already. I don't see Izuku yet, he said he'd be here though.

"You're just like him!" Some shouts right next my ear startling me.

"I'm sorry?" I tell him, not sure why he's suddenly yelling at me. "I was looking for someone."

He scowls doesn't bother answering, and stalks off.

Ok then. No idea what that was about.

A few minutes later, Eraserhead comes out of a side door with Izuku following behind him looking rather annoyed. Which… does not bode well for the rest of us.

"Were going to start now." He announces, the sparse conversation dying out completely. "The exam will be a simulation of a villain attack. Through the doors behind me is a mock city, my intern" he claps a hand on Izuku's shoulder and Izuku gives us a beaming smile that makes my stomach drop. "Will be acting as the villain."

I can hear muffled scoffs from behind me. Obviously, underestimating Izuku. Where I am seriously contemplating just saying screw it and leaving. Because, facing Endeavor will probably be less painful then facing Izuku when his smile is promising bloody retribution.

I softly groan when Izuku pins me with a stubble glare, clearly knowing what I’m thinking and daring me to go through with it. The girl beside me gives me an odd look. But I'm too busy trying to figure out how not to die to care.

"Izuku will have 10 minutes to prepare, then you'll be let in the city. You will have an hour to catch him with the capture tape we will be distributing."

He nods to Izuku who glares at Erasurehead as he enters the city. "Your 10 minutes start now."

"You know him?" the girl from besides me asks, curious at my previous reaction.

"Yea. And whoever made this test was feeling particularly sadistic. Izuku in a good mood is a pain to fight. In a bad mood..." I wince. "We'll be lucky if it's not a massacre."

"He looked to be in a good mood though?"

I choke on a laugh. "Yeah you'd think so, but that was his if I have to suffer, I'm dragging all of you down with me smile."

"Which means?"

"We're screwed. I only hope the teachers told him to go easy on us.”

“Maybe it won’t be that bad?” She tries to be optimistic, but it falls flat. I give her a pitying look, she’ll learn. Just like everyone else here who is underestimating him because he plays the I’m just so innocent I couldn’t hurt a fly card a little too well.

“It will be. If you don’t mind, we could work together? We’d a least have a better chance.”

“I’d like that. I’m Yaoyorazu Momo, my quirk is creation, I can make anything I know the composition of from my fat cells.” She extends her hand.

“Todoroki Shoto. Half-hot, half cold. I make fire on my left side and ice on my right.” I shake it. “Let’s do our best not to die.”

“What can you tell me about him?”

I glance at the clock; we don’t have much time. Maybe 5 minutes before we begin. Barely enough time to give a brief overview. I give her a quick run down of Izuku’s abilities and what handicaps he may be working with. “I highly doubt they’d let him use that knock out technique or his long-range capabilities, which are horrifyingly destructive. So, he’ll likely be limited to short-ranged augmented by his flames and his intuition. I wouldn’t recommend engaging him in hand to hand if you can help it. I have years of training, and I’ve never won against him.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Finally starting to get the picture that Izuku is a well-rounded powerhouse on par with the pros.

“Try to stay on support. Create openings for the others to get hits in. The best way to fight Izuku is to not fight him at all. He picks on threats directed at himself and reacts faster to them than if he were to get hit by a stray attack that wasn’t aimed at him at all...”

“And with all these people, there will be a lot of big attacks flying around.” Her eyes widen in realization.

I nod, it’s likely none of these people have worked together I a group. They’ll be constantly getting in each other’s way, simply because they don’t know how _not_ to. “Instead of getting caught up in that mess, our focus should be trying to corner him so someone else can capture him.”

“Times up.” Erasurehead announces. “I hoped you used your time wisely.”

When I take the capture tape and walk through the door into the city, I try to ignore the feeling like I’m marching to my death.

I fail.

Aizawa

“So,” Nedzu asks standing beside me in the observation room. Only a few of the teachers are overseeing this exam. Vlad, Present Mic and All Might, addition to myself and the principal. It had come as a great shock that this sickly man was actually the number 1 hero “out of curiosity, how did you get him to agree?”

“I don’t know how, and I can’t prove it, but he definitely has a hand in the disaster going on in Endeavor’s agency.”

“Ah yes. I heard about that.” From the humor leaking into his voice, he’s done more than just heard about it. “Apparently, Endeavor’s office was… redecorated several times last week.”

I snort, that’s one way to describe it I guess. “It’s apparently been going on for months. It’s just recently escalated to the point it can’t be suppressed anymore.”

“Did you ever figure out who was doing it?”

“No, Izuku was annoyingly tight lipped about it.” Which could mean a variety of things, but in this case probably means the person is involved in some less than legal activities.

“I’m sure we’ll end up meeting them at some point.”

“I’m somewhat dreading it.” Because I don’t doubt we will. And because it’s Izuku we’ll probably meet in the most problematic and destructive way possible.

“Erasurehead!” Present Mic slings an arm around my shoulders.

“Get off.” I scowl and shove him off, he laughs good naturedly.

“You roped your favorite problem child into giving the test? You sure are feeling mean.” He teases.

“You know him?” Vlad asks, curious. “I know he’s your intern Erasurehead, but isn’t he the same age as the others?”

“He is.” Nedzu answers “But it wouldn’t be fair to the other applicants if he took the same exam. He’s far above them in ability.”

Vlad watches the monitors skeptically. There’s not much going on right now, a few of the robots Izuku was given control of are causing some havoc but haven’t actually hit anyone yet. The monitor focused on Izuku, shows him lying on the roof of the tallest building one leg crossed over the other bouncing, while he messes with the tablet showing the schematics of the city and the robot’s controls.

“What do you think he’s planning?” Present Mic asks.

“He probably going to try to take them out all at once. He doesn’t like long drawn out battles.” I respond.

“But he’s not even doing anything!” Vlad argues, gesturing to the screen.

“I wouldn’t underestimate him.” Nedzu warns. “His favorite thing is when people underestimate him.”

“Which is what the majority of them are doing.” All Might comments for the first time. “They’ll end up paying for it. It’s subtle, but young Midoriya is slowly drawing them to his location, while simultaneously wearing them down. By the time they get there, they’ll be tired, frustrated and unwilling to work with each other. So far I’ve only seen 2 people work together.”

“Todoroki Shoto and Yaororazu Momo correct? I’m a bit surprised Todoroki was willing to work with someone considering…” Vlad trails off, but we all know he means Todoroki’s relation to Endeavor.

“It’s not when you realize him and Izuku are friends, and he’s well aware how much of a terror Izuku can be.”

“If you say so.” He acquits shrugging, still not entirely believing it. It’s pointless to argue with him, he’ll see it for himself eventually. And words really don’t do Izuku justice.

Slowly but surely the applicants are funneled into the plaza below the building Izuku’s on. The robots repositioning to prevent them from escaping. 15 minutes before the end of the exam, Izuku makes his move.

He leaves the tablet on the roof and takes a running leap off the 20-story building, letting out a burst of flame from his hands just before he hits the ground. Without waiting for the others to recover from the shock, he launches himself at the closest person to him and knocks him out with a brutal uppercut to the chin.

Without a pause he moves on to the next person, who is able to at least get his guard up, not that really does them any good. He jumps up, higher than a normal person should be able to and aims a kick that lands squarely on the side of the kid’s head. He drops and Izuku moves on to his next victim.

The others have finally recovered but are completely uncoordinated and are getting in each other’s way. There’s tall boy with a wind quirk that keeps getting led into hitting other people with his quirk rather than Izuku. The others are starting to get very vocal with what they think of that.

Izuku, on the other hand is laughing freely, as he knocks out person after person. Flitting across the battlefield like he truly belongs there.

The sad, and somewhat expected thing is, not one person has been able to even touch him.

Not one.

In this mess I try to find Todoroki, he’ll have the best bet in capturing Izuku. I finally find him, lurking on the outskirts with Yaoyorazu to avoid getting caught up in the cross hairs. Yaoyorazu’s quirk isn’t suited for this type of melee, any long range weapon she makes would just result in friendly fire and few can match Izuku in close range, so it seems she’s helping direct where Todoroki should throw his ice or fire to protect other students and attempt to corner Izuku into one of the other applicants. She also uses a riot shield she made in order to block any stray attacks that come their way, freeing up Todoroki to focus more on offense.

It’s not the large overwhelming shows of power Endeavor is known for either, each attack is small and precise. He’s actually gotten close a few times, but Izuku manages to slip away in the nick of time.

It comes down to the last minute when Izuku finally makes a ‘mistake’. When he goes to dodge another burst of wind coming straight for him, his foot slips on a patch of ice left over from one of Todoroki’s previous attacks. Allowing just enough time for someone to slip the capture tape around his wrist. The buzzer goes off, signaling the end of the exam. Izuku knew it was there, his situational awareness isn’t something you can laugh at. 

“He let them win.” All Might comments, likely catching the same thing.

“He did, I asked him to lose.” Nedzu confirms. “If I allowed him to go all out, it would have been a complete massacre which would have put off these children from becoming heroes.”

“Surely, you can’t…” Vlad starts but cuts himself off when he observes the aftermath of Izuku going easy. Of the 40 students taking the exam, Izuku directly knocked out half, and injured the rest either with his own attacks or by leading them into the path of another.

Izuku alone, stands uninjured in the middle of unconscious and moaning bodies. Completely unaffected by the battle that had just taken place. His eyes are still slightly glowing orange, and the flames covering his hands haven’t been extinguished yet.

“Midoriya Izuku, is a prodigy the likes I’ve never seen.” Nedzu praises, proudly puffing out his chest.

He’s right, no one can deny it. But somehow… I don’t think prodigy is the right word. 


	18. Extra 1

Endeavor

It has been a… trying few months. Shoto making friends with that disrespectful brat, when he’s really just another steppingstone to completing my goals. And while I’ll admit Shoto has grown immensely since the beginning of their interactions, I worry the brat will become a distraction.

Things have been going wrong at work as well. At least once a week someone is messing with the office. The most aggravating thing about it, is that we have no idea whose doing it. There’s nothing on the security cams, no evidence of someone breaking in, even when I finally hired a night guard it still happened. Absolutely nothing.

It started off small, things going missing, mostly office supplies, but there was one time every chair in the building went missing. Or the particularly irritating time all the coffee was replace with cola.

But it was this month where things really started to escalate. The first week, they painted the entire building in rainbow colors. Even the outside and the furniture. Not that anyone actually _saw_ them do it. The main office space was painted an eye searing green, and my personal office was _pink. Pink!_

The second week, my office was packed floor to ceiling with balloons that exploded with glitter when you popped them. I will never be able to get rid of it. And it clings to fucking _everything._ How are people supposed to take me seriously, when my hair fucking _sparkles?_

So, when I walk into the building today and everyone suddenly goes suspiciously quiet, I know something is up.

“Where is it?” I growl, no one wants to answer, but finally someone speaks up.

“Your office sir.” He answers, voice shaking.

I stomp my way to the door, and fling it open so hard it leaves a dent in the wall.

All the furniture in the room has been replaced. My desk has become one of the plastic kids’ tables with the large legs that make it hard to tip over with the matching chairs. Where there are stuffed animals having a tea party, complete with deserts. The bookcase is filled with picture books, the walls have been decorated with fairies and flowers. There’s a large doll house taking up an entire wall.

My office is a three-year-old girls’ bedroom.

Dangling mockingly from the ceiling in the center of the room is a note. In a stupor I grab it. This is the first time they’ve contacted us. Maybe with this, well be able to catch them.

I flip the note open. It is written in a gorgeous calligraphy, the message however, causes me to lose my temper and accidentally send the note up in smoke.

_I thought I’d make the room more age appropriate._

_ Hope you like it! \ (•_ _◡_ _•) / _

This, of course, is when the sprinklers and fire alarm go off.

I grind my teeth in a futile attempt to suppress my anger and storm out of the room dripping wet. I pay no attention to the people around me, who wisely get out of the way.

When I catch the person responsible, I will make sure they will _regret fucking with me._


	19. Chapter

Izuku

I pick my way over the various unconscious people on the ground to where Shoto is sitting with his back against the wall. Next to him is Yoayorazu Momo, who I had noticed working together with him during the exam.

Shoto shoots me a half-hearted glare when he catches sight of me. “You, are a horrible person.” 

My lips quirk upwards as I laugh. “Don’t laugh, I’m bruised, tired and have no plans on moving anytime soon.

“Then I guess, I’ll have to go to the café myself.”

He gives another glare. “You’re treating me.”

“Sure.” I agree smiling fondly. “You’re welcome to come too if you want.”

“Thank you for your offer, but my parents made plans to go out.”

“Another time then. I’m sure we’ll see each other in school.”

“I’m… not sure I got in. I didn’t do much.” She shrugs.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The judges weren’t looking only at your offensive power. They were more interested in your adaptability and your ability to cooperate with strangers. Most people here have no experience in the field, they aren’t expecting you to be perfect.”

“You do? Have experience I mean.” She asks surprised.

“He takes down kidnapping rings in his spare time.” 

“Hey! That last time was totally not my fault.”

“No, you just happened to walk in on it happening.” He responds sarcastically, fully knowing I was acting on my intuition. “Like that time at the convenience store. Or the bank. Or…”

“Ok ok I get it.” I whine. “It’s not like I can help it.”

Shoto doesn’t bother responding and just gives me a deadpan stare.

“Alright, you’ve made your point. I’ve got to go debrief; I’ll meet you at the front of the school in about 30. It was nice meeting you, Yoayorazu-san.”

“Likewise.” I wave as I jog up to the observation platform. I chuckle when I hear her ask “Wait… how did he know my name?” Just before I’m out of earshot. 

* * *

I knock on the door and head in before someone answers. Most of the people in the room, I’ve met, or have at least heard of. But there is one person I’m surprised to see there.

“Yagi-san? What are you doing here?”

“You’ve met before.” Aizawa groans in defeat.

“Yeah… he talked to us after the sludge villain.”

“Well I suppose it’s better to get this out of the way now.” Nedzu nods to himself. “It’s not like we were going to be able to keep it a secret from you anyways. He’s All Might.”

“Nedzu-san!” Yagi- All Might lets out a mouthful of blood in surprise.

“What, it’s not like he wouldn’t figure it out the second he saw your hero form. You’re going to working here, it was inevitable he’d find out.”

I suppress the urge to fanboy, not that I’m very successful from the amused look Present Mic is giving me. But hey, I didn’t squeal, so I’m counting that as a win. But how did this happen? From the amount of atrophy, it’s clearly gone on for a while. Years probably And now that I think about it, All Might has drastically reduced the amount of hours he works. His injury must prevent him from working long hours. I start running down lists of villains I know he fought within the last couple years. Toxic Chainsaw is the most likely culprit I can think of, but my intuition tells me they’re not responsible. 

“Izuku.” Aizawa startles me out of my deep thoughts. He gives me a long-suffering look. “You’re mumbling again.”

“Ah, sorry.” I sheepishly rub the back of my head and try to ignore the shocked stares. And Present Mic’s laughter, which I will certainly pay him back for later.

“Well, you’ve already worked out most of it Young Midoriya.” All Might tells me. “The fight was never made public, we couldn’t afford to let people know I was so badly injured.” I wince in sympathy when he lifts his shirt to show me a grotesque scar. Gut wounds hurt like hell. “The fight left me without a stomach, and part of my lung. And as you pointed out, I currently can only hold my hero form for 3 hours a day.”

And that won’t last forever, I pick up on what he didn’t say. So, he’s using his valuable time as a hero to work at UA. Why? To teach the next generation? Partially right, Ok. My eyes widen in realization. He’s looking for a successor. The next Symbol of Peace. 

Things previously unrelated start falling into place to form picture I previously couldn’t see. All Might is on the fast tract to retirement. And there’s no one to take his place. There won’t be for years to come. The villains know it too. They may not know everything, but they’ve definitely realized something is up. I think back to the reports Byakuran gave me, the odd increase in villains located around UA. 

Someone knows All Might is weakened. And the school just became a prime target.

“Young Midoriya? Are you alright?” All Might’s voice breaks through the coming panic.

“I was just thinking.” I try to assure him with a shaky voice that convinces no one.

“About?”

“If you teaching here and the general increase in unrest in the underworld are related.”

The room goes silent. 

“There hasn’t been an increase in crime.” 

“Well, no.” I agree, “But I’ve been getting the feeling something was… not right. So, I had someone look into it for me.” At Aizawa’s disapproving glare I hastily add on. “I was going to talk to you and Tsukauchi-san about at our meeting tomorrow.”

“This wouldn’t be the same person you had deface Endeavour's agency?” Nedzu-san asks with a raised eyebrow. But it thankfully breaks the suffocating tension.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I had nothing to do with that.” I tell him in my most serious voice. The one I reserved for telling Reborn, no, you can’t just shoot him. “Besides even if I did. The asshole deserves it.”

Someone chokes. I think it was All Might. No scratch that, blood’s pouring out of his mouth again. It was  _ definitely  _ All Might.

“Putting aside your dislike of Endeavor, what did your source tell you?”

“While there hasn’t been an uptick in crime, there are a lot more villains lurking around than is usual so close to UA. Which is weird, for obvious reasons. But also means there’s probably someone holding the leash.”

“Any idea who?”

“All I can tell you is that they aren’t based in the city.” I shrug.

“I want to meet your contact.” Aizawa demands. 

“I’ll set something up.”

“I’d like to meet him as well.” Nedzu-san asks. I can’t help but wince. “Is that a problem?”

“No. I’m just imagining all the destruction this will likely cause.” The slightly unhinged principal and the clinically insane Byakuran will probably get along like a house on fire. It’s slightly terrifying. I then realize that any destruction caused, won’t be my problem. And therefore, I no longer care about the disaster those two meeting will cause.

“Is he dangerous?” I choke on a laugh. Considering Byakuran anything  _ but _ dangerous is a hazard to your health at best.

“Well, not to me. And he knows better than to try something against what he considers to be my people.” An alternate him tried that once, it ended with him dead. Needless to say, he never tried that again. “So, you’d have nothing to worry about. Just… do me a favor, don’t mention Bakugou. I really, _ really _ don’t want to have to run damage control.” 

Because stopping Byakuran from painfully murdering Bakugo  _ would _ be my problem. And I also don’t have an endless supply of idiots to throw him at anymore to keep him occupied. It’s times like this that I  _ actually _ miss the mafia. 

“We’ll… keep that in mind.”

“Now how about we get on with what this meeting’s actually about.”

“Shoto and Yaoyorazu were the only ones to work together, I’m biased when it comes to Shoto, so I’ll leave that to you, but Yaoyorazu adapted to the situation pretty well. I wasn’t particularly impressed by anyone else. Inasa, however, has no situational awareness at all, and was the main offender of friendly fire in the exam and was incredibly easy to rile up. That’s all I think is relevant.”

“Thank you for that Izuku, you’re free to leave if you want.” 

“Don’t be out too late, we still have patrol tonight.” 

“Ok!” I leave them to discuss the exam. I push the heavy topics we talked about out of my head for the moment and focus on something more relevant to the present.

Mainly, how much cake it’s going to take for Shoto to forgive me.


	20. Chapter 19

Aizawa

Izuku arranged a meeting with his contact a few days later at a cafe. It took a lot less effort than I thought it would be. I figured Izuku would make excuses and try to put it off, so it came as a bit of a surprise for him to set this up so quickly.  
“Tell me about him.” I ask on our way to the cafe, where we’ll be meeting the principal and this Byakuran character.  
“He’s… kind of like the principal? Just with less morals I guess. He only really cares if things are interesting. Honestly, I’m kind of dreading them meeting. I hope the cafe is still standing by the time we leave.”  
I don’t bother to hide the wince at the thought of two Nedzu’s conspiring. It’s a terrifying idea.  
“And he finds you interesting?”  
“I’m his favorite toy.” He responds in a fond tone. “In Byakuran speak, that’s the highest praise you can get.”  
“He sounds…”  
“Unhinged? Insane?” Izuku offers. “He totally is. But he knows where the line is, he may toe it every now and then but he won’t cross it.”  
“You seem very certain he won’t.”   
“Because he knows, the second he crosses that line, I’ll beat him back into place.” His face closes off and I can just barely make out what he says next. “I’ve done it before.”  
I act like I didn’t hear that. The more I hear about this guy, the more wary I become. “How did you even meet?”  
He gets this really tired look that I always hate to see on him. It makes him look so much older, weighed down by things no one his age should.  
“He found me, after that first operation I participated in with Shoto.”  
“Wait, he came looking for you?” I narrow my eyes in worry, why would Byakuran, who is clearly some sort of villain or vigilante at best.  
“Don’t think about it too hard, the relationship between me and him... it’s complicated. I know people won’t understand it. But without a doubt in my mind, I know he won’t harm me. He couldn’t bare to. Just as I know if he ever goes off the deep end, I’ll stop him. Even if it means I have to kill a part of myself to do it.”  
I don’t have a response to that. What could I say? It’s odd and worrying to see Izuku put his trust in someone so completely. When I know he doesn’t fully trust anyone. I’m used to being the one that Izuku trusts the most, and I had to work for every little scrap. For someone who’s only known him for a short time to get this kind of trust, is more than a little grating. We spend the rest of the walk to the cafe in silence as I stew in jealousy.  
“Oh good, the principal isn’t here yet.” Izuku comments as we enter. He leads us to a table in the back where a man with white hair and lavender eyes is waiting.  
“Tsu-kun!” The man exclaims and sweeps Izuku off his feet into a hug and twirls him around. “You're here! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you I thought you were avoiding me.”  
Izuku tries to deliver an elbow to the man’s side, but is dropped before it connects. “I was avoiding you.”  
“You’re so mean to me.” He pouts.  
Izuku shakes his head, clearly used to his antics.  
“This is Byakuran. Byakuran this is Eraserhead.”  
“Aizawa Shouta.”   
“Nedzu-san’s here, I’ll go grab him.” He shoots a meaningful glare at Byakuran before he leaves, which the older man pays no mind to.   
“I don’t trust you.” I glare at him.  
He throws his head back and laughs, sliding into the booth. “You’d be stupid if you did.”  
“I see you two haven’t managed to murder each other while I was gone.” Izuku interrupts the principal close behind him.   
Nedzu-san hops up on the table. “You must be Byakuran, I’m Nedzu, the principal at UA.”  
Byakuran’s eyes shine with an unholy light. “Tsu-kun, you didn’t tell me he was this cute!”  
Nedzu for some reason actually preens at the praise.   
“It didn’t come up?”   
“Now now, we can discuss how amazing I am later. Why don’t we all take a seat?”  
As Izuku goes to sit, he’s stopped by Byakuran holding out a bank card. “Tsu-kun why don’t you go get us something to drink.”  
Izuku looks at him for a moment, a silent conversation taking place between them. Finally, Izuku rolls his eyes and takes the card.  
“I’m ordering the most expensive thing on the menu.” He informs him before turning to us. “What would you like?”  
“Earl grey please.”   
“Black coffee.”  
“Alright I’ll be back.” He glares at Byakuran and points, “Behave.”  
Byakuran, in response to being scolded like a misbehaving child, simply appears to be thoroughly amused.   
All of the mirth, however, slips right off his face the second Izuku can no longer see him.  
“Ahh~ so much to talk about and so little time to do it. So. Let me get straight to the point. You--” He gestures at me. “Are Tsu-kun’s parental figure.”  
“His legal guardian, yes.” I confirm, slightly confused at the strange phrasing.  
“Well.” He gives me a considering look that feels alot like Izuku’s “He’s certainly done much worse.”  
“He told you?” I ask shocked that Izuku would discuss his less than stellar parents with anyone.  
“No. He hasn’t. Simply because he knows he doesn’t need to.”  
“Your quirk?” The principal asks in interest.  
“I can see into alternate dimensions. At other me’s and other Tsuna’s. I can even interact with them to some extent, mostly by sharing knowledge with other me’s.”  
Nedzu looks so excited with this knowledge that he’s vibrating. “Then the multiverse theory is correct? Or is it something different?”  
“Hmm,” He tilts his head in consideration. “It’s more along the lines of parallel dimensions. There are worlds where quirks never developed. Worlds with no heroes. There are even worlds that have been reduced to wastelands because the balance was lost.” He pauses for a moment. “But in all worlds, Tsu-kun and I meet. As strangers, lovers, enemies, any relationship you can think of, we’ve had. And that’s what makes this Tsu-kun so special.” He leans in and whispers “You see, this Tsu-kun, is from one of those parallel dimensions.”  
And suddenly everything clicks into place. It’s hard to believe, what he’s telling us is completely outlandish, but it makes an odd amount of sense. Why Izuku put up with the abuse for so long before taking action shortly after awakening his quirk. How he often feels so much older than he is. How he knows so much about things he really shouldn’t. I guess I figured out how he knows so much about kidnapping rings, he must have been some kind of involvement with them previously.  
“Then how is he here?” The principal asks. “I assume you had something to do with it?”  
“The exact mechanics, I don’t know. The me in his world went mad with grief when Tsu-kun died. In a last ditch effort, he did something that ended up with Tsu-kun ending up in this world. From what I know, he didn’t actually regain his memories until his flames awakened. Even now, he doesn’t remember how he died.”  
“But you do.”  
“Unfortunately.” He grimaces, but makes no effort to explain.   
“Why are you the one telling us this? I assume Izuku doesn’t know?”  
“Because, he probably never will.” His face twists in pity and understanding. “It’s too painful. He hasn’t asked me what happened, after he died. Because he knows, it wasn’t anything good. But I’m also telling you as a warning, Tsu-kun at the moment is rather… unstable.”  
He quickly schools his expression back into that happy go lucky one from before. Just in time for Izuku to set down the tray of drinks. “What were you talking about?”  
“My quirk.”  
“Ah. Parallel dimension bullshit.” Izuku nods to himself sliding into the booth beside Byakuran. “I’m glad I left then. Your quirk a pain to understand.”  
“Your intuition is just as bad.” I scoff. Byakuran huffs in amusement.  
“Now that you’re done threatening each other let’s get into what you wanted to discuss.”  
“What makes you think we were threatening each other?”  
He raises an eyebrow at me. “Other than the fact I know you?”   
Byakuran starts dumping an ungodly amount of sugar packets into his coffee.   
“If you don’t mind me asking, what is it you do?” Nedzu asks.  
“I’m the CEO of Millefiore.”  
“Wait, the international cooperation that's pretty much dominated the tech industry?!”  
“That’s the one. And it's not just the tech industry we are involved in. I’ve got my fingers in a lot of pies. And paying attention to what’s going on in the underground usually pays off in the long run. Information is the most important resource after all.”  
“How old are you?”  
“18” He smiles.  
“Then… you founded an international company when you were 14?”  
“What? It’s not like it was hard.” Byakuran looks genuinely confused with our disbelief.  
“It is for normal people.”Izuku snorts in amusement into his drink.  
“Like you’re any better. You just cheat the stock market.”  
“Lies and slander.” Izuku glares daggers at him.  
“Izuku…” I sigh running a hand over my face. “What is he talking about?”  
“Well,” He stirs his drink, “hypothetically, if I wanted to make money quickly, I’d invest in the stock market using my intuition to determine the best investments and when to sell them.”  
“And this is completely hypothetical.”  
He averts his gaze to the ceiling.  
“Izuku.” I scold.  
“It’s not illegal.” The principal unhelpfully adds. “I think it’s quite resourceful.”   
“Please don’t encourage him.” I mumble into my hands. Why is it I’m the only one that seems to have any common sense?


	21. Chapter 20

Izuku

“Welcome home.” Aizawa grunts in return and drops himself on the sofa next to me. “How’d the general admission exam go?”

“They’re not all hopeless.” He grumbles, unhappy about something. 

“But…?”

“Bakugou got first place.” He sighs.

“Ah, that's… not really surprising? Wasn’t it just destroying a bunch of robots?” And no matter what you say about Bakugou, he’s really good at destroying stuff.

“Mostly, we were also looking for heroic acts that we assigned rescue points for. They aren’t hard to get, however, he didn’t get a single rescue point.”

“Not even by accident?” 

“Not one. And given his history…”

“You're worried he hasn’t changed.”

“He’ll be accepted to UA. He’s done a lot of community service to try and make up for his actions, so we don’t have a valid reason to deny him entrance.” He gives a resigned sigh.

“We always knew this would be a possibility.”

“I know. Because you’re the victim in this, the principal has given you the final say in the class assignments.”

I lean back and think. “What do you think is best?”

“I’d like to keep a close eye on him, in case I need to erase his quirk to keep him in line. The only issue with that is…”

“I’m required to be in your class.” Three more years with Bakugou, I knew it was likely to happen. Bakugou has always wanted to attend UA. And Bakugou always gets what he wants. “Well I’m not happy about it, but if that’s what you think will be best I’ll be civil about it. Fair warning though, I am knocking him out if he tries something.”

He drops a hand on my head. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. I’ll warn the other teachers not to put you two in the same group. There’s no need to tempt fate.”

“Yeah, with my shitty luck something would definitely go wrong.”

* * *

I head in early with Aizawa the day school starts. While he heads off to the staff meeting, I take to roaming the halls to try and get rid of some of my restless energy. Meeting Bakugou again won’t be fun. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it. I knew this would happen eventually, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. At least this time I know Aizawa won’t put up with any of his shit like the other teachers did.

After a quick glance at the time, I head towards the classroom. People should be showing up soon. I pull out a book to pass the remaining time.

A few minutes later the door opens, and Shoto comes in.

“Izuku? You’re really early.”

“Yeah, Aizawa had a staff meeting this morning, I’ve been here for about a half hour.” He drops his stuff and sits in the desk next to mine.

“Do you know what we’re doing today?”

“He didn’t say, but I don’t think we’re going to the entrance ceremony, his class has never gone before from what I’ve heard.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out then.” He gives me a worried look. “Are you sure you’ll be alright with…”

He cuts himself off when the door opens again. A tall boy with blue hair and glasses enters.

“Hello! My name is Iida Tenya from Somei Private Academy. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He stiffly introduces himself.

“It’s nice to meet you.” I smile, giving off a little sky flames to get him to relax a little. “I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

“Todoroki Shoto. Nice to meet you.” Shoto greets while rolling his eyes at me, when feeling my flames as well.

“I apologize I didn’t see you at the entrance exam.”

“Oh, we both took the recommended exam.” I pointedly ignored the shiver that goes through Shoto at the reminder.

“Was it difficult? We had to destroy villain bots in the general exam.”

“The teachers set one of their interns on us. I would have preferred robots.” He glares at me.

“Oh that must have been a wonderful experience.” Iida exclaims completely missing the byplay between us.

“It was an experience alright.” Shoto grumbles.

A few more people have come in at this point, forming their own groups around the room. I wave when I catch Yaoyorazu walk in. Aizawa also slips into the room unseen and immediately gets in his sleeping bag behind the lecturn. I shake my head, I swear, that man will sleep anywhere.

I return to making small talk, when my intuition pings. I immediately sit up right and deliberately focus my attention away from the door. Shoto catches this and tenses as the door slams open. Bakugou. He glares at everyone in the room, but his expression devolves into outright rage when he catches sight of me. 

“ _ You.” _ He growls out with such vitriol that everyone stops what they are doing to watch.I viciously stop myself from flinching back by digging my fingernails into the palm of my hand. I won’t give him the satisfaction. “What do you think  _ you’re _ doing here ** _ Deku_ ** ?!”

The class holds its breath. I shake my head slightly, signaling Shoto and Aizawa to let me handle this. 

“I was accepted of course.” I give him my brightest smile that doesn’t quite reach my eyes. “You should take your seat, the teacher should be here any second now.”

He clearly wars with himself between confronting me now and potentially being caught. Ultimately, he decides it’s not worth the risk and insteads tries to glare holes through the back of my head from his seat. I let out a sigh of relief, and suppress a grimace. His attitude certainly hasn’t improved any.

Iida seems to take offence to his behavior and immediately goes to scold him.

While the rest of the class focuses on the show the two are putting on, Shoto leans towards me and softly asks, “Are you sure you’re ok with this?”

“I can handle it. I don’t like it, but I can handle it.” I don’t tell him not to worry, he will regardless of how I try to convince him. And if I’m honest, I’m a bit worried too.

The last few stragglers file in and wisely skirt around the ongoing argument, just as the warning bell goes off.

“If you’re here to socialize, get out.” The room goes silent at Aizawa’s interruption. “This is the hero course. You’ve wasted 8 seconds quieting down, a hero can’t afford to waste time.” He stands and unzips the sleeping bag. “Welcome to class 1A, I’m Aizawa Shota. I’ll be your home room teacher.”

He pulls out a gym uniform from somewhere.

“Change and meet me at the grounds.”

“What about the entrance ceremony?” One of the girls asks.

“I’m not going to waste my time listening to the principal’s speech.” He glares at the girl for even suggesting such a thing. “Hurry up we don’t have all day.”

A flurry of movement comes at his order and we quickly make our way to the locker rooms. I try to change in a corner, with Shoto blocking me. 

“Wow dude what happened to you?!” I give a put out sigh, I’ve only just got my shirt off and someones already noticed. I look over my shoulder, and sure enough, everyone’s staring at me. Flustered, I quickly yank the gym shirt over my head. Shoto goes to confront the boy, but I catch his arm.

Iida, bless him, whacks a red haired boy, who I assume is the one who pointed it out. “Don’t stare, it's rude!”

“Ah-” the boy rubs his shoulder, embarrassed by his reaction. “Sorry man I didn’t mean to call you out like that. I’m Krishima Eijirou.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m Midoriya Izuku.” I give him a lopsided smile, my grip on Shoto’s arm tightening slightly. “I know it’s not pretty to look at, but I’d appreciate it if no one mentioned it again.” 

He gives me a beaming smile. “No problem man!”

And like that the awkward moment is over. Everyone goes back to what they were doing, I still catch a few brief glances at me, but I can handle that.

“You ready?” I ask Shoto, eager to leave.

“Yeah.” He slams his locker shut, still irritated.

I rub my exposed arms uncomfortably, it’s been a long time since I wore short sleeves in public like this. I can’t help but feel self conscious about all the scars littered across them. Some are very recognizably hands. I shake off the memory of burning hands grabbing me. I can get used to it. It’s fine. 

I cast a quick side glance at Bakugou as I pass him. Ever since Kirishima called notice to my scars he hasn’t taken his eyes off me. I don’t know why, but for some reason there's a pooling sense of dread starting to form in my stomach. Something’s going to happen, I just know it.

But that’s fine. I expected this, I’ll just have to be extra vigilant. I know how Bakugou works, everything will work out in the end.

It’s nothing I can’t handle.


	22. Chapter 21

Aizawa

Unsurprisingly, Izuku and Todoroki are the first ones out. And based on Todoroki’s concerned glances, and Izuku’s clear discomfort, something definitely happened in the locker room. I don’t get the chance to confront them on it before the other students show up. Something I’ll have to do later then.

“We will be having a quirk test, Todoroki” I toss him a ball, “how far could you throw in middle school?”

“Without my quirk? 65 meters.”

“Use your quirk, do whatever, just stay within the circle.”

He nods and thinks for a moment. “You should back up a bit.”

“Is this fine?” 

“Should be.” He coats the ground with a thin layer of ice and then a stream of fire released from his outstretched arms causes him to rapidly rotate. The flames form a pseudo tornado, he releases the ball and slowly comes to a stop.

“796 meters.” I show them the device. “It’s important to know your baseline, to know where you need to improve.” I give them a mean spirited smirk that some of them flinch back at. “However, those with no potential, meaning the person that comes in last, will be expelled.”

They protest as expected, Izuku shaking his head in exasperation. 

“Not fair? As a hero, nothing you come across will be fair. Unnatural disasters, villains, domestic disputes, as a hero you’ll be expected to confront the unfairness in these things. So you might as well get used to it.”

A few more groans, but nothing else.

“Let’s get started.”

There weren’t too many surprises with the results, most did very well on one or two events and about average on the others. A few early standouts were obviously Izuku and Todoroki, but Iida, Bakugou and Yaororazu also did well.

The first event Izuku used his flames on, the 50 meter dash, did cause some issues. The event itself was fine, he simply propelled himself forward. But Bakugou had a rather violent reaction to it.

“WHAT THE HELL DEKU!” He lunges at Izuku. “SINCE WHEN DID YOU HAVE A QUIRK?” 

I catch him with my capture weapon, but he still strains at it trying to get to Izuku. He hasn’t used his quirk yet, so there seems to be some progress on that front. Now if only they could have done something about his attitude.

“Since I was 12. There was a very particular way to activate it.” He tilts his head slightly. “And for your next question, which is surely going to be why didn’t I tell you, why would I? You made it very clear we weren’t friends. Why would I tell  _ you  _ anything?”

Bakugou freezes seemingly taken aback by Izuku’s words. Izuku has been chasing his back for so long, it must be mind boggling to be disregarded like this. I don’t know what he expected. From the last time they saw each other, it was clear Izuku wasn’t going to let him walk all over him again. I don’t understand why Bakugou was expecting Izuku to be a doormat.

“Both of you, stop wasting my time.” 

“Sorry sensei.” Izuku smiles completely unrepentant, like the little shit he is. Bakugou on the other hand grumbles obscenities under his breath, but stops resisting. 

The rest of the exam goes fairly smoothly, but the tension between Izuku and Bakugou is still present. And only grows when the results come out. 

As I predicted, Izuku and Todoroki respectively take first and second place, with Bakugou taking forth behind Yaoyorozu. The boy gnashes his teeth together and glares at them, angry at them for daring to score better than him. Even though both have been working with heros for at least two years, not to mention the fact Endeavor regularly ‘spars’ with both of them. Though the only reason he probably spars with Izuku is to try to put him in his place… not that it worked. 

Minoru Mintea who scored last, becomes incredibly pale and starts to tremble. I don’t really want to pass him, I’ve seen how he looks at the girls in the class, but he’s also not completely hopeless either. I internally sigh, well it’s not like I can’t get rid of him later.

“So,” I smirk “I was lying about expelling someone.” I take note of the few that aren’t surprised, while waiting for the uproar to calm down. “It was a logical ruse to ensure you brought forth your full potential.”

Minoru slumps down in relief, mumbling about still being able to pick up women, or some other sort of nonsense.

“You’re all dismissed.” Once they’re gone, I head over to where All Might is not so stealthily hidden around a corner. 

“A logical ruse?” He asks, somewhat amused. “Didn’t you expel an entire class last year?”

“I did. But the only one who knows that is Izuku and he certainly wasn’t going to say something.” He gets just as much enjoyment out of messing with his classmates as I do.

“How did he become your intern, if you don't mind me asking.”

“It was mainly to keep him out of trouble, his quirk can be very problematic at times, and he doesn't always have control over it. We also couldn’t leave him where he was, there was just too much risk that he would attract unwanted attention.” 

“Has it worked?” He asks amusement clear in his voice. Seems he has as much faith in Izuku’s ability to stay out of trouble as I do. That is, none at all.

“That depends on your definition of worked. He is very well known in the police department, they’d hire him if they could handle his ability to end up in absurd amounts of trouble. So unfortunately we’re stuck with him.”

He laughs. “Like you would let him go.”

I shrug, but don’t deny it. “Did anyone catch your eye?”

He contemplates this for a moment, “Young Midoriya, he has that spark I’ve been looking for.”

“You may want to rethink that choice.” I grimace.

“Why? Surely you must agree that he’ll become an amazing hero?”

“He will. There’s no doubt in that, but… I don’t think he’ll agree to take One for All.”

“And you don’t think he should.”

“No. He already has more power than he knows what to do with, and honestly, I don’t think Izuku really considers himself a hero.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I asked him once, he told me he was too selfish.”

“But he’s not.”

“I don’t claim to understand what’s going on in that head of his.”I snort. “It’s beyond me. You can ask him if you like, but please, respect his decision. I will not be happy if I find out you pushed him into it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I have to go make sure none of my idiot students destroy the classroom.”


	23. Chapter 22

Izuku

“My intuition’s been acting up.” I inform Aizawa, sprawled out on the armchair in our living room.

“Any idea why?”

“No. It’s being annoyingly vague.” I complain. He gives me an odd look. “What? I’m not omniscient.”

“Could have fooled me. You’re impossible to surprise.”

“Not impossible, just very hard to.” I grumble, It’s not like I  _ want _ to know half the stuff I do. “Besides, it usually gets vague like this when it’s not entirely sure what it’s warning against. You can only predict free will and chance to a certain extent, all I know is  _ something _ I probably won’t enjoy is going to happen today.”

“If you had to guess?”

“That’s easy.” I scoff, “Bakugou.”

“I was worried you’d say that.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I HAVE COME THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!” All Might bellows, slamming open the door, and sliding through. My fellow classmates too caught up in their hero worship to appreciate just how weird that was. 

“TODAY YOU WILL TAKE YOUR FIRST STEPS TO BECOMING A HERO! BATTLE TRAINING!”

He pushes a button on a remote and cases pop out of the wall. My classmates excitedly rush to grab their costume only paying the minimum amount of attention to All Might who watches on with amusement. It’s a mad dash to the locker room where they are oohing and awing over each other's costume. Mine appears rather simple, a well tailored black suit with a cloak and bracers on my forearms and shins, if you didn’t count the multitude of hidden weapons that is. I also had the tech department recreate the contacts and headphones Spanner had made to the best of their ability. The contacts aren’t perfect, but they are still usable. I had considered going for something more flashy, but ultimately decided to stay with what I’m most familiar with.

Fastening the cloak around my shoulders I try to settle my nerves, I can’t afford to react out of reflex. At this point only Shoto has any chance of keeping up with them, and even then only just. I could really hurt someone if I’m not careful. 

Everyone is excitedly commenting on each other's costumes. 

“Your costume is so cool!” One of the girls gushes

“Thanks I like yours too” I smile “Your Ochako Uraraka right?”

“Yeah” She beams at me. “It came out a bit tighter than I would have liked, but it’s not that big a deal. Your name is Deku?”

My eyebrow twitches in annoyance. Seems like Bakugou’s been busy. “No, that's an insult people used to call me. I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

“Ah I’m so sorry!” She frantically apologizes, “I didn’t mean to make fun of you.”

“No worries, you didn’t mean anything by it.” I assure her. 

“ARE WE ALL HERE? Everyone is looking good in their costumes! It’s time to start battle training!”

“Sensei! Will we be going over basic maneuvers today?” Ida, who is decked out in full body armour, asks. 

“The best way to learn is to experience it yourself, where do you think you are most likely to encounter a villain?”

“Outside?” 

“Good answer, but not quite. Anyone else? What about you Young Midoriya?”

“You're more likely to find small-time villains or someone looking for their 15 minutes of fame on the street. For villains who are more dangerous or are working together in a group, you’ll most likely find them inside. That’s not to say you won’t find a high level villain just walking around.”

“Correct! So today we are going to do an indoor battle. You will be split up into teams of two, one will be designated as hero and the other villain. The villain will be guarding a bomb, while the heroes have a limited amount of time to disarm it.” 

“What are the victory conditions?” Yoarorazu questions. “And how will we determine teams?”

“You will be drawing lots to determine your teams and if you’re the hero or villain.”

“Is that the best way to do it?” Ida asks.

“You don’t always get to choose who you work with.” I sigh, thinking of how much easier life would be if I could just refuse to work with Endeavor. “You may hate the person, but you still have to be able to work with them.”

“I see! I hadn’t thought of that, my apologies!”

“As for victory conditions, for the villain team, you need to be able to protect the bomb for five minutes, for the heros, you need to either capture the villains using the capture tape I’ll be distributing, or secure the bomb by touching it. Any questions?”

“GREAT! THEN LET'S DRAW TEAMS!”

“Look Midoriya-kun! we’re on the same team!” Uraraka excitedly bounces next to me holding the A ball with both hands close to her chest.

“I look forward to working with you.” I smile fondly. 

“Now for our first match, THE HERO TEAM A AND THE VILLAIN TEAM D!”

I glance around looking for team D and my heart drops when I see them. Of course. Of course it would be Bakugou’s group.

“Sensei, I don’t think this is a good idea.” Shoto says hesitantly. 

“NONSENSE! It will be fine, I’ll be sure to step in if things get too heated.”

“But--” 

“I have to do this Shoto.” I whisper. He doesn't look very happy about it but doesn’t protest anymore.

All Might sends Ida and Bakugou into the building and guides the rest of my classmates to the viewing platform with the instructions to begin when the timer starts and the layout of the building.

Knowing I’m going to-- _ need to _ \-- face off against Bakugou, brings a stomach churning anxiety I haven’t felt in a while. I know I need this. Even without my intuition’s prodding, I know I can’t leave the situation with Bakugou like this much longer. But need to and want to are two very different things.

And I can’t tell if I’m lucky or not to have plentiful experience in doing things I never wanted to do. 

So I shove that part of me that hates confrontations into a box in the back of my mind and resign myself to the situation. 

“What’s your quirk?”

“Zero Gravity, I can make things float.”

“Mine is sky flames, fire, with a mental component.”

“That’s so cool!”

“Can you make yourself float?”

“I can, but it makes me sick.”

“I see.” I narrow my eyes in thought. “If we can, I’d like to avoid Bakugou. His explosions are not something to mess with are definitely not safe to go against inside. He’s liable to bring the entire building down on our heads.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Well I can tell you Ida is the one who will be guarding the weapon, Bakugou just doesn’t have the patience. If we do come across him, he’ll probably ignore you and focus on me, I can handle him if it comes to that so just continue without me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” 

“TIME STARTS NOW!”

“Ida’s on the top floor, Bakugou’s on the second.” I report, focusing my intuition. “If I can get us above the roof, can you help with the landing?”

“No problem. I might be a little queasy though.”

“That’s fine, I only need you to slow me down for a few seconds, I haven’t flown carrying someone my size before so I want you to soften the landing just in case.”

“I can do that.”

“Get on and hold on tight.” I crouch down, and she climbs on firmly wrapping her arms and legs around me. I build up flames in my palms and just before releasing them warn her. “Brace yourself and keep your mouth closed.”

She lets out a startled squeak and tightens her grip as we rapidly accelerate high above the building. We start to fall towards the roof.

“Activate your quirk in 3...2...1...NOW.” Thankfully she still has her wits and I weightlessly desenced the last few feet to the roof.

“You ok?” She slides off my back with a dazed look.

“Yeah… that was, I don’t know what that was.”

“Well you didn’t scream, and we landed safely, so I think that went really well.”

“Do you think they noticed.”

“I don’t think so.” I head to the roof door, “Come on.”

“It’s locked.”

“Not for long.” I pull out a lock pick.

“How do you know how to pick a lock?”

“It’s a handy skill to know.” The door clicks “It’s open now. I’ll go first.”

“Right.”

We silently make our way down the stairs stopping just outside the room where Ida is guarding the bomb. 

“Looks like he cleared the area of debri.” I murmur

“What I’m I going to do then?” 

I reach back and pull out a knife. “Here, use this as back up. I can take out this wall safely, it’s not load bearing. The second I do go for the bomb, I’ll keep Ida busy to the best of my ability. Bakugou’s moved up to the fourth floor, so try to get to it before he gets here.”

She nods. 

“Ready? In 3…” I build up flames in my fist, as she braces herself “2...1!” I let my fist fly and shatter the wall into pieces.

Ida startles badly at the sudden intrusion. Uraraka sprints through the hole straight for the bomb, touching bits of rubble on her way. Ida recovers quickly and goes to stop her, but with a quick burst of flames I intercept him. He’s just barely able to stop himself from running into me and change course.

He’s faster than I am, but to turn, he has to pretty much stop. I’m able to keep up with him, using my intuition to predict where he’ll go. So far he’s been able to keep both of us from the bomb. Uraraka is just about to reach the bomb, when my intuition goes off. Assured that Ida will be fine with his armour, I tackle Uraraka to the ground and throw up a quick shield.

“Wait don’t-” Ida yells as another wall explodes violently, large pieces of wall slamming into the barrier Bakugou making his entrance into the fight.

“DEKU!!” He screams enraged.

“Go.” I drop the shield.” Be careful.” 

“You too.”

“You really haven’t changed,” I sigh. “I hoped you would.” 

He attacks indiscriminately, I’m mostly successful in keeping him away from the other two.

“You were just laughing at me weren’t you.” He growls. “You had a quirk this whole time.”

“I’m flattered you think so highly of my 4 year old self to be able to trick everyone, including my mother and several doctors. I didn’t have one the entire time we were friends. By the time I did get it, I wanted nothing to do with you.”

I maneuver myself behind him, when he turns to punch me again I sway out of the way looping the capture tape around his wrist and flip him onto the floor.

“Bakugou has been captured!”

“I don’t owe you anything.” I look down at him. “Quit acting like I do.”

I distantly hear All Might screaming for Bakugou to stop at the same time my intuition blares in my mind. But, it’s already too late to do anything, Bakugou has already pulled the pin. I can’t dodge, If I do, Ida and Uraraka will be badly injured. I have just enough time to throw up a hasty shield in front of me to take the brunt of the attack. 

It’s not enough.

the explosion barrels right into me, my flames instinctively rising to protect my vitals. White overtakes my vision when I slam into the wall behind me and drop to the ground. Dazed, I sit there for a moment before everything tilts around me. I give into unconsciousness to the sound of someone screaming.

_ Am I dreaming? _ I wonder.

Because nothing makes sense, I don’t know where I am or how I got here. The world is distorted around the edges, everything’s splitting into double and back again, my eyes unable to focus on anything. I can’t hear anything past the ringing in my ears drowning everything out.

**“Iz-“**

A flicker of movement catches my eye and I strain to focus on it. A person, or at least I think it is. They’re getting closer, they’ve seen me, I know they have. They bend over me, applying pressure to my stomach. I recognize them, but for the life of me I can’t remember their name. They’re screaming now. Desperately. I can’t understand it. I don’t like it though, I can’t recall their name or who they are, but they shouldn’t look like they are about to cry. It doesn’t suit them.  _ sad dream.  _ I think wistfully, completely ignorant to the fire raging around us or the shrapnel buried in my body. I let my eyes finally drift close and let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. _ I w _

So, with herculean effort I reach up to touch his face, leaving streaks of stark red behind.

“Don’t cry.” I manage to choke out, a warm metallic taste filling my mouth. “Smile.”

**“-Ku!”**

He manages a tearful smile and clutches my hand with an aching tenderness. A cold I hadn’t noticed before starts to slip in, it’s starting to get harder to keep my eyes open. He’s screaming again. I give a self-deprecating smile. _ I wish I could remember his name. _

**“Izuku!”**

The name finally rips me from the dream. No. The memory. Shakily I try to sit up, only to have someone gently push me back down. There’s burning pain everywhere. The back of my head and my ribs intensely throbbing.

“Careful young Midoriya. You took quite the hit.” It’s All might, my hazy mind supplies. He’s hovering above me keeping my head still. He’s kind of blurry, and with the ringing in my ears it hurts my head to hear him speak.

“Wha-”

“You got caught up in Bakugou’s explosion.” Another voice comes from my other side. I try to look at him the best I can, red and white hair fade together.

“Shoto?”

“Yeah.” He squeezes my hand. I didn’t realize he was holding it, it’s nice and warm though.

“-the hell were you thinking!” Huh. Weird, when did Recovery Girl get here? I groan in pain, why does she have to be so loud?

“Sorry dearie,” She apologizes, diverting her attention to me when she hears me. “I’ll have you fixed up in no time.” She plants a gentle kiss on my cheek. The pain throughout my body starts to fade. I’m so tired. Maybe I can just rest my eyes for a second. Yeah… I think as I drift off. Just one second.

  
  



End file.
